Access to medicines in Europe: the EU cannot save banks while sacrificing people's health

In a seminar hosted last week by the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists & Democrats (S&D) in the European Parliament and the Member of the European Parliament (MEP), Alejandro Cercas (S&D, Spain), six MEPs from various political groups, along with representatives of governments, leading academics, researches and public health organizations met to raise awareness about one of the most alarming issues that European health care systems face – the increasingly inadequate public access to medicines and its dire consequences, according to a web posting by the European Public Health Alliance.

Speakers were brought together to discuss solutions that help make drugs accessible, affordable and available to the public. Austerity policies are having a profound impact on the ability of many European public health systems to provide many of the necessary biomedical products for their citizens and residents. "European governments are using the current economic crisis to cut public spending across the board; decades of social justice are being swept away in a matter of a few years. What also raises eyebrows is the sense of arbitrarily that comes with the cuts - lifesaving medicines should have never made it into any cut list. Health care systems should be at the very bottom of the austerity list, not as a default option," said MEP Cercas.

In her intervention, MEP Maria do Ceu Patrao Neves (EPP, Portugal) put forward a proposal to ease the current scarcity of medicines in Europe. "Research and innovation will make the production of medicines increasingly sustainable and affordable, bringing prices down so people for whom medicines have become a luxury regain the lifesaving access today denied. In addition, a decisive and smart boost to research and innovation of medicines will help make them more effective, widening the diseases they covered,” she said.