News

The members of the European Alliance for Responsible R&D and Affordable Medicines have joint their voices in the Joint Rome Declaration to raise awareness and concerns on the most pressing issues related to access to affordable medicines, including the EU’s Pharmaceutical Strategy. The COVID-19 outbreak has shown that the quest for equitable access to medicines [...]

The European Alliance for Responsible R&D and Affordable Medicines (henceforth, the Alliance) welcomed the initiative of the European Commission to renew the European Global Health Strategy, and the opportunity to provide feedback on the public consultation. The current EU Global Health Strategy from 2010 has shown deficiencies when responding to the major recent challenges (COVID-19 [...]

The European Alliance for Responsible R&D and Affordable Medicines welcomed the opportunity to provide feedback within this European Commission’s consultation on Intellectual property: revised framework for compulsory licensing of patents. Compulsory Licensing (CL) is a crucial public health safeguard to ensure an adequate balance between innovation incentives and access to essential medicines. The creation of […]

The Members of the European Alliance for Responsible R&D and Affordable Medicines have published a note today outlining key recommendations to prevent and mitigate shortages of medicines in the upcoming revision of the pharmaceutical legislation.   The note highlights that the EU needs a bold patient-centred policy on the prevention and management of medicine shortages based […]

The European Alliance for Responsible R&D and Affordable Medicines calls for all parties to protect the health and welfare and guarantee access to medical tools and healthcare for all people affected by the ongoing war in Ukraine Members of the Alliance are deeply concerned by the unfolding humanitarian crisis and stand in full solidarity with […]

On Tuesday 18 January 2022 (14:00-15:15), the Alliance co-hosted the second event of the Zooming in on Solution to the Affordability of Medicines webinar series along with Global Health Advocates (GHA) and the European Public Health Alliance (EPHA). Speakers and participants discussed potential obstacles and ways to establish more transparency of R&D and other real […]

Brussels, 21 December 2021 Members of the Alliance have published a note today outlining key recommendations of civil society organisations for the new EU pharmaceutical strategy. A key pillar for this new strategy is the balance between providing innovation incentives for new medicines and ensuring their accessibility, availability, and affordability. The note identifies flaws and […]

On Wednesday 17 November (9:30-11:30 am), the Alliance organized the regional dialogue for EU activists working on overcoming patent and other intellectual property barriers to access to health technologies. The dialogue provided a place for EU activists to reflect on the past 20 years since the Doha Declaration and is part of the weeklong event […]

HERA should prioritise the public interest, remain accountable to citizens and ensure equitable and affordable access to medical tools Brussels, 3 November 2021 Several Alliance members have sent a letter to health attachés and to the Health Commissioner urging them to reconsider crucial aspects of the recently launched Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA) and […]

Brussels, 20 September 2021 Following the preparation of the next public-private partnership – Innovative Health Initiative – health policy organisations, including several members of the Alliance, have sent a letter to the Health and Research and Innovation Commissioners expressing concerns about over-influence by private partners over setting strategic priorities for the future partnership. As highlighted […]

Transparency of clinical trials and good governance should be included in the EMA extended mandate  Brussels, 9 September 2021  In occasion of the ongoing trilogues on the European Medicines Agency (EMA) extended mandate, Members of the European Alliance for Responsible R&D and  Affordable Medicines urge the Council to ensure the new Regulation enhances clinical trial […]

Brussels, 26 August 2021 As of end of June 2021, Rosa Castro is the new Manager of the European Alliance for responsible R&D and Affordable Medicines, which is hosted by EPHA. Rosa brings her experience working at the intersection of science policy and intellectual property law, as well as her passion for improving public health […]

The European Commission launched a public consultation on an inception impact assessment for the future European Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority – HERA. At this link and below, the Alliance response to the consultation. Download the feedback COVID-19 has shown (and still showing) the importance of cooperation to respond to cross-border health threats. The […]

Download the joint position paper The EU must ensure access to affordable and quality medicines in Europe whilst guaranteeing everyone’s right to a healthy and sustainable environment. Human medicine is not an ordinary commodity – public interest and public health should prevail as leading priorities when regulating the pharmaceutical sector. Ahead of a stakeholders’ workshop […]

The Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-A) was launched by the World Health Organization (WHO), governments and global health actors as an ‘unprecedented and inclusive partnership’ to address some of the challenges linked with the management of the COVID-19 emergency and the development and delivery of needed treatments, vaccines and diagnostics. The partnership will need […]

Download the full statement Concrete actions needed for global pledges to result in access for all 4th May 2020 We welcome the efforts of the global health actors and other stakeholders to rally financial support to the research and development (R&D), manufacturing and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics through the May 4th global […]

The European Alliance for Respondible R&D and Affordable Medicines joined the international global health community to call on governments, agencies, manufacturers, donors and development partners to commit to global principles for access, innovation and access. The global effort is accompaigned by an online petition addressing European decision-makers in cooperation with WeMove.   COVID-19: Principles for […]

On 25th March 2020, 62 organisations including patients, consumers, healthcare professionals, trade unions and public interest organisations published a letter to express our views on the importance of the role of public support to research and development during the current pandemic.  Since January, the European Commission and national governments have mobilised millions of Euros to […]

Under the future Partnership between the European Commission and the healthcare sector industries, a considerable amount of public funds will be allocated to health research and innovation projects. 43 organisations including patients, consumers, doctors, payers, HTAs and public interest organisations express their views on the European Partnership on Innovative Health in a letter to the […]

On February 1, 2019, the government of Italy submitted the text of draft resolution to the WHO, with a cover letter noting the aim of providing an “authoritative mandate to strengthen WHO’s technical work on the transparency of the costs of research and development and the transparency of prices” for discussion under agenda item 11.7 […]

Putting People’s Health First: Improving Access to Medicines in Europe – November 2018 Download the European Elections Manifesto “Putting People’s Health First: Improving Access to Medicines in Europe” The Manifesto is also available in French, Spanish, Gaelic, Dutch, Greek Health and R&D policies are a critical to the success of the European project. In order to put […]

Civil society position on the proposal of the European Commission for the introduction of a Supplementary Protection Certificate (SPC) manufacturing waiver As civil society organisations working on access to medicines and public health, we wish to contribute to the ongoing discussions on the European Commission proposal for the introduction of an SPC manufacturing waiver. European […]

Civil society’s proposal for Horizon Europe, the next EU research framework programme Read and download the full proposal here September 2018 High prices of new drugs for cancer, hepatitis C and rare diseases in Europe have attracted great media and public attention and have brought the debate about access to medicines into the political spotlight […]

Civil society reaction to the European Commission’s proposal on Horizon Europe We, the undersigned twenty one civil society organisations, raise our strong concern about the European Commission proposal on the next research framework programme Horizon Europe which fails to make a serious commitment to ensure public interest-driven biomedical R&I. Though the challenge of access to […]

On 16th April 2018, 35 civil society groups wrote a letter to the European Commissioner for Trade, Cecilia Malmström, expressing concerns over the European Commission’s plans to create an EU Watch List. The letter states that “despite the European Union’s public pledge of support for third countries’ right to use the flexibilities of the TRIPS Agreement and […]

To: Mr. Carlos Moedas, Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation Cc: Mr. Vytenis Andriukaitis, Commissioner for Health and Food Safety        Permanent Representations to the EU 4th December 2017 Open letter in reaction to Council Conclusions “From the Interim Evaluation of Horizon 2020 towards the 9th Framework Programme” As civil society organisations working […]

Open letter to the European Commission on the follow-up of the June 2016 EU Council Conclusions on “Strengthening the Balance in the Pharmaceutical Systems in the EU and its Member States” On 17 June, 2016, all 28 European Union (EU) Health Ministers agreed on Council Conclusions to address the imbalances in the pharmaceutical systems in […]

On 3rd August the European Medicines Agencies published the long-awaited report on its so-called adaptive pathways pilot project. The report did not dissipate the doubts on the approach raised by civil society organisations, academics and HTAs. A clear definition of unmet medical needs, well-defined criteria to assess drugs to enter a fast-tracking market approval, more transparency, […]

On World Hepatitis Day, Médecins du Monde (MdM) and Treatment Action Group (TAG) launched a new report Dying at these prices: Generic HCV cure denied, based on crowdsourced hepatitis C data from over 40 countries available at mapCrowd.org. The report offers a very good overview and data on the current situation as well as possible solutions […]

BEUC, the European Consumer Organisation, expresses its concerns on the adaptive pathways approach which is promoted by one of the projects of the European Medicines Agency. The position paper entitled “A fast-track approval for new medicines – Patient safety at risk?” articulates the consumers’ doubts that the new fast-track procedure can expose patients to unnecessary […]

Health Action International (HAI) has launched a new book and website highlighting the impact of the current patent system on access to medicines and encouraging governments to use flexibilities in the IP system. The book, Private Patents and Public Health: Changing Intellectual Property Rules for Access to Medicines by Ellen ‘t Hoen, describes the interrelation […]

As of 6th June Viviana Galli is the new Coordinator of the European Alliance for responsible R&D and Affordable Medicines. Viviana has a long history of involvement in the social, youth and education sectors, where she acquired significant experience in the management of membership-based organisations and coordination of projects and campaigns involving civil society representatives, decision-makers, […]

Transparency International Pharmaceuticals and Healthcare sector programme (PHP), Mundo Sano and Dying for a Cure are three of the latest organisations that in the last months joined the European Alliance for responsible R&D and Affordable Medicines and endorsed the Joint Declaration. Transparency International researches corruption within the pharmaceutical and healthcare sector, focusing in particular on […]