#EAPM: Transparent alliance lets light shine on personalised medicine

The European Alliance for Personalised Medicine (EAPM) this week hosted a very different meeting inside a glass house facing the Brussels European Parliament, writes EAPM Executive Director Denis Horgan.

The 'transparent’ gathering, held in the type of building associated with sunshine and growth, was entitled ‘Taking Stock – The role of science to realize better access to health care’ and attracted much interest from passers-by, as well as a full house of delegates.

Around 50 attendees from a broad-base of stakeholder groups filled the temporary glass house on the European Parliament Esplanade, during the event that took place on Tuesday (11 October).  Three MEPs (Marian Harkin, Lambert Van Nistelrooy and Cristian Busoi) addressed the high-level meeting, which also saw speakers drawn from AstraZeneca, Intel, the European Patients Forum, genetic giants Illumina and Roche.

Lambert Van Nistelrooy, who spoke on the topic of regions and healthcare: reaching a balance said: “Many people will tell you about the disparities and inequalities in access to personalised medicine between different member states.

“This is a large part of the problem, yes, but there are also sometimes huge differences between regions in individual countries.

“We need to do a lot of work in this regard and EAPM, with its SMART Outreach programme, is getting out-and-about and on-the-ground to try and solve the many problems where they are occurring.”

Cristian Busoi, meanwhile, told the gathering: “Eastern EU countries tend to be less resourced and have difficulties with, for example, payments for patients who need to cross-borders for treatments that they cannot get at home.

“This is in itself a barrier to access and we clearly need to find ways to improve the situation in these countries.”

Describing how biomarkers, targeted diagnostics and data management were changing the way in which new medicines were developed and brought to patients, Ruth March of AstraZenaca said ” Industry, regulators, patient groups and payers need to work closer together to allow scientific advances to deliver personalised medicines faster, and in a way that brings value to patients and healthcare systems.”

Meanwhile, Kaisa Immonen-Charalambous, of the European Patients Forum, said: ”Today’s patients are much-better informed than ever before and demand to be included in the decision-making processes that will define their treatments.

“Patients should always be at the heart of personalised medicine and should certainly be consulted regarding their needs and lifestyles, as well as listened to during any present and future debates over what constitutes ‘value’ in medical terms,” she added.

Other speakers at the event included Ansgar Hebborn, of Roche, Mario Romao, of Intel, and Rob Hastings, of Illumina and EAPM’s Denis Horgan.  The four-year-old alliance, based in Brussels, is made up of patients, researchers, scientists, academics, health-care professionals, law- and policy-makers.

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