#EAPM - Exit stage left, pursued by a virus…

One of the ways we at the European Alliance for Personalised Medicine (EAPM) are trying to keep things moving as normal is through our next major event - a June conference bridging the Croatia and German Presidencies of the EU. Due to the COVID-19 situation, we obviously have to hold this online, in ‘virtual’ format, writes EAPM Executive Director Denis Horgan.

 The title of the summer ‘gathering’ on 30 June is 'Maintaining Public Trust in use of Big Data for health Science in a Covid and Post-Covid World'.

Despite us not being able to meet face-to-face, if it follows in the footsteps of our 8th annual Presidency Conference held in similar fashion a few weeks ago, it will be a great success. Events such as this allow the pulling together of leading experts in the arena of personalised medicine drawn from patient groups, payers, healthcare professionals plus industry, science, academic and research representatives. Cooperation is king!

The end-of-June online meeting will be the second in a series of three Presidency conferences the Alliance is holding during 2020. The third will be a German Presidency Conference later in the year.

Not only do these conferences reflect the nature of the relative presidency policies in the healthcare arena, but also act as major events during the first full year of the two new legislative bodies - the European Parliament and the European Commission. 

And the event is now even more important given the incredible challenges Europe and the world now faces in the perfect storm of this devastating pandemic.  

There will be plenty to talk about….

Up to the minute…

It seems that we’re not the only ones banging the drum for international and stakeholder cooperation. 

European Parliament Brexit main man, and Belgian former prime minister Guy Verhofstadt echoed the thoughts of many when he Tweeted in response to the news that US President Donald Trump has pledged to withdraw funding from the World Health Organization (WHO) for a perceived China bias and generally not being up to snuff - at least according to Trump.

The suspension of funding will happen while his administration reviews the WHO response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Verhofstat wrote of the move: “Trump is repeating the same tricks over and over again. Blaming international organisations for his own failures. The exact opposite should happen. We have to strengthen international cooperation to be better prepared for the next…”

The man in the White House is not, of course, the only one looking for scapegoats, as many have blamed the situation in Europe on inaction by the EU. This despite the fact that healthcare is a member state competence and the EU’s hands are tied in many areas. The likes of the Commission can nudge member states to co-ordinate and co-operate, but in most cases they can’t force them.

Meanwhile, we certainly need more co-ordination on the methodologies on mortality rates due to Covid-19, not least for reasons of transparency. And other basic info is at a premium, too.

It transpires that around one-third of us have seen misleading info on the pandemic on social media. Hardly helps, does it?

Vax to the max

As we twiddle our thumbs at home, not only are we all waiting for life to return to a semblance of normality (some way off) and lockdowns to end (also some way off), we are also waiting for a vaccine to thwart COVID-19.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has bluntly stated that, until the latter happens, life will not return to normal.

Von der leyen added in a newspaper interview that researchers are working “flat out” to find a vaccine, with two of “the most promising teams” located in Europe aiming to start trials “soon”.

Interestingly, some British MPs have taken the time to say that any future potential vaccine should be available to all. Well, of course it should!

To not do so would fly in the face of the EU principle of solidarity - especially if the vaccine were made on EU territory and not made readily available to all citizens, both ‘locally’ and globally.

In a letter to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the All-Party Group on Vaccinations for All said the government must put in place several safeguards to ensure that there are no barriers to accessing a vaccine or treatment. 

Chair of the group, Scottish National Party MP Philippa Whitford, said: “Just as coronavirus does not see borders, it is absolutely crucial that the fight against the virus is a worldwide effort.”

Fair enough. But let’s not forget the case of insulin and today’s access to the life-saving drug. In 1922, researchers at the University of Toronto announced its discovery, and sold the patent for $1 so that it would be available to all. 

Unfortunately, almost 100 years later, it is being charged at around $300 a dose. Not a happy precedent…

People power?

Many have been impressed (at least to a degree) that democratic governments have come down on the side of citizen safety rather than the economy.  The question is whether they will continue to do so.

It is clear that the economic damage is, and will continue to be, massive in any case. Facing up to this new world of ‘Coronomics’, the International Monetary Fund has already predicted that

the global economy will contract by 3% this year.

“It is very likely that this year the global economy will experience its worst recession since the Great Depression, surpassing…the global financial crisis a decade ago,” IMF Economic Counsellor Gita Gopinath wrote, adding: “The Great Lockdown, as one might call it, is projected to shrink global growth dramatically.”

Gopinath had some slightly better news for 2021, sort of: “We project global growth in 2021 to rebound to 5.8%,” although this would still be just a partial recovery. 

The “level of economic activity is projected to remain below the level we had projected for 2021, before the virus hit,” with global economic output in 2020 and 2021 set to shrink by “around nine trillion dollars, greater than the economies of Japan and Germany, combined”, she said.

The great escape 

The Commission has thrown out a few ideas regarding an eventual ‘exit strategy’ from this unholy mess we‘re in.

In a text entitled ‘European Roadmap towards lifting COVID-19 containment measures’, it suggests that, because contact-tracing apps are an “effective tool”, these should be part of the exit strategy. When containment measures are being lifted they will be very useful for “when the infection risk grows as more and more people get in contact with each other”.

And, surprise, surprise, the EU Executive has said that harmonized data-gathering and sharing across Europe is “essential to better manage the lifting of measures”.

It adds that social media and mobile network operator data has the potential to help forecast the pandemic if “pooled and used in an anonymised, aggregated format”.

Meanwhile, says the Commission, countries should “expand testing capacity and harmonise testing methodologies”.

“The availability of large-scale testing that can provide fast and reliable results is key to tackle the pandemic and also a precondition for lifting social distancing measures in the future.”

And, down the line, a vaccine would be “game-changing to help put an end to the COVID-19 virus. Its development and fast track introduction is therefore essential”.

The Commission’s aim is to issue guidance for Member State governments and believes that any scaling-back of confinement measures should be “gradual” while general lockdowns “should progressively be replaced by targeted ones”. 

In essence, the “most vulnerable groups would be protected for longer” while those who have tested positive to the coronavirus “would remain quarantined”.

The Berlaymont says it is also “streamlining the needed regulatory steps from clinical trials to marketing authorisations, to ensure an acceleration in the process”, as it will also do in the case of any possible cure.

Great news to end this bulletin, and not before time.

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