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Still no #Brexit date, but you can make a date with #EAPM

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Registration for EAPM’s 7th annual presidency conference will close at noon CET today (Wednesday 3 April), writes European Alliance for Personalised Medicine, Executive Director, Denis Horgan.

The ongoing Brexit saga is sure to provide a lively topic for discussion at the event in Brussels next week (8-9 April at the University Foundation), although it certainly won’t be the only one.

But there are actually things going on aside from Brexit, and there will be plenty of other matters on the agenda at the EAPM event.

It’s entitled "Forward as one: Healthcare Innovation and the need for policymaker engagement”, and will allow for a bridge to legislators and others in order to further build on the developments that the Alliance has helped to architect in various policy areas.

It is the ideal one-stop shop, as stakeholders from every discipline and every member state come together to forge the way ahead, Brexit notwithstanding.

So dont miss this FINAL opportunity to join large numbers of industry professionals, government regulators, patients, academia, researchers, healthcare journalists and more into driving insights into action.

The link to register is HERE and to view the agenda, click HERE.

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Corbyn to the rescue?

It transpires that back over in the UK, Theresa May has decided to go to the opposition leader, Labour’s  Jeremy Corbyn, in a move that has dismayed hard Brexiteers but one that she believes might allow her to “break the logjam”.

She will also be appealing (again) to the EU for a further extension, but one that will still theoretically take the UK out of the European Union before the cut-off date of 22 May.

Why that date? Well, the EU elections run from the 23rd of that month, but there is still a slim chance that Britain will have to field candidates in the polls.

Right now, nobody really knows.

Frankly you’ve a better chance of landing a winning bet on this weekend’s Grand National at Aintree than second-guessing what will happen in the UK with just nine days left until the current departure date of 12 April.

No deal looms large

For its part, Brussels in the shape of chief negotiator Michel Barnier now says that a no-deal scenario is “very likely”. Whether or not this is ‘kidology’, it’s certain that some political parties in Europe reckon that Britain hurtling over the Brexit cliff in such a fashion will signal to other Member States that leaving the EU is not the smartest of ideas.

Meanwhile, Barnier has also said that if UK MPs end up backing “a relationship along the style of the Norway model”, the EU could move quickly to facilitate it.

Said the Frenchman: “If the UK so wishes, we are ready to rework the Political Declaration, as long as the fundamental principles of the EU are respected.”

There’s not been much sign of that so far from the Sceptr'd Isle, but never say ‘never’…

Over in Paris, French President Emmanuel Macron - who’s arguably been the most hard-line critic of the farce that has been played out in Westminster - has said that the Union “cannot be the hostage of a political crisis in the UK”.

This he said yesterday (2 April), to reporters after he’d held a meeting with Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar.

Leo the Lion of Dublin, meanwhile, was in complete agreement, arguing that “the EU should not be consumed by Brexit”.

Interestingly, in all the discussions over the past few days, not one EU leader has seen fit to acknowledge that today is former UKIP leader Nigel Farage’s 55th birthday. Maybe they forgot.

In other news…

And speaking of being forgotten, the Belgian parliament has determined that survivors of some serious diseases(in particular cancers) will not have to report these details of their medical history once the illness has been gone for a certain amount of time.

Such practices began with the French right to be forgotten” law and are aimed at making it easier for survivors to get insurance policies and also mortgages.

Regarding the elections, there’s plenty of talk about the Spitzenkandidatenprocess, and whether that will actually be employed.

The EPP’s lead candidate, Martin Weber, is clearly assuming it will be and has already visited 17 EU countries as part of his listening tour,” according to his team.

Meanwhile, Parliament has released a further set of seat projections, using national polls, on the composition of the institution after the elections.

Weber’s party are predicted to win 188 seats, the socialist S&D group 142, and ALDE 72.

However the numbers finally fall, for new MEPs and an incoming Commission there is still an important and ongoing debate around Commission plans for mandatory joint action on HTA, and many other healthcare elements going forward.

Prior to that (16 April) a plenary vote to approve the supplementary protection certificate manufacturing waiver is scheduled to take place.

And back to France, its medicines regulator (ANSM) has extended a deadline to 19 April for experts to apply to serve on 15 different standing committees. 

These bodies form a part of the regulators efforts to become more responsive and integrate a patients and users” approach..

The committees are also geared towards increasing transparency by holding more public hearings.

So, there is plenty going on in the world of healthcare, which why itis vital to engage with politicians at EU and Member State levels to push the case for personalised medicine, especially raising awareness among European Parliamentary candidates old and new.

EAPM’s event provides the ideal forum. We hope to see you there.

The link to register is HERE and to view the agenda, click HERE.

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