Critical Medicines Alliance Report recommends priority actions to strengthen the supply of medicines in the EU and prevent shortages

Today, the Critical Medicines Alliance, a consultative mechanism bringing together relevant stakeholders from EU Member States, key industries, the civil society, and the scientific community, have published a report with key findings and proposed recommendations covering various different challenges of the supply chains of critical medicines.

On the main industrial challenges, the Report notes an overreliance on a limited number of geographical locations for the provision of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) and raw materials, the erosion of the EU manufacturing base or the lack of competitiveness and investment in the European industry. With the objective of strengthening European manufacturing of Critical Medicines, the Alliance recommends investment in EU strategic projects. The Alliance also calls for financial support, relying on a combination of EU funding programmes and national State aid.

In order to ensure the security of supply of Critical Medicines, the Alliance recommends a harmonised and balanced framework of stockpiling requirements complemented with virtuous public procurement practices. It additionally calls for a systematic integration of essential procurement criteria like supply security, resilience, and environmental impact. To enhance the resilience of the EU supply chains, today's Report recommends to leverage existing partnerships with third countries and to build new ones.

The Alliance was set up in January 2024 to discuss and propose possible ways to address the industrial and competitiveness dimension of critical medicines as a complement to the revision of the EU pharmaceutical legislation.

(For more information: Anna-Kaisa Itkonen – Tel.: +32 2 295 75 01; Anna Gray – Tel.: +32 2 298 08 73)