#EAPM - Health means wealth - and we need both!

Greetings, colleagues, and welcome to another update from EAPM HQ as we move properly into the month of June, writes European Alliance for Personalised Medicine (EAPM) Executive Director Denis Horgan.

You may be aware that we have a Presidency conference coming right up, scheduled for the end of the month. Registration is now open, and you can get on board by clicking here.

The virtual conference is a ‘bridging event’ between the current Croatia and upcoming Germany EU Presidenciesand will be held online, on 30 June. It’s entitled Maintaining public trust in the use of Digital Health for health science in a COVID and post-COVID world, so is bang on topic.

A key role of any EAPM conference is to bring together experts to agree policies by consensus and take our conclusions to policy makers. And this time, we go even further into the realm of expertise, given the huge crisis that we are all facing.

Do join us if you can!

In the meantime, here we all are stuck in the midst of the complex and challenging COVID-19 situation which, while lockdowns are being removed or at least pared back in many places, is still having a profound effect on human life not only across Europe, but across the whole planet.

Aside from the massive health implications, there is a vital need to get the European economy back on track. And with that in mind, the three upcoming European Council presidencies - that’s the aforementioned Germany, plus Portugal and Slovenia, have said they will “as an overarching priority…implement all appropriate measures serving a robust recovery of the European economy”.

This is according to their already adopted joint proposal in respect of the Council’s priorities for the next 18 months.  

It states that the plan for recovery “must be based on solidarity, cohesion and convergence; the recovery must be flexible, agile and evolving; it must be inclusive and co-owned by all involved; while fully respecting our values, rights, and the rule of law”.

On the topic, Germany’s Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said: “We want to strengthen the EU’s social and economic base. We want to make our continent more climate friendly and sustainable. And we want to make Europe’s interests and values more heard in the world.”

Speaking of finance and recovery, the European Central Bank’s Governing Council has looked to expand its Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme.

Led by Christine Lagarde, the ECB has two key reasons to do so, and those would be demonstrating its independence of the German court, and offering stimuli that will take longer to get into the financial system if coming from the EU directly.

Disparities in race death rates

We’ve had plenty of protests of late, peaceful and occasionally violent, concerning the death of black man George Floyd at the hands - or more accurately, by the knee - off a policeman in the US, as well as some arguably crass behaviour from the leader of the free world, what with bibles, churches he’s never been to prior, threats of military intervention and so on. 

But the COVID-19 pandemic has merged into the picture, given that there are clear issues of race and health inequality, with data indicating that if you are a man, black, poor or have a comorbidity, you are more likely to die from the virus. 

For its part, figures for the UK were initially delayed, apparently due to the situation across the Atlantic, with opposition politicians clamouring for the review to be published regardless. Shortly after, it was. But the reason for disparities are still not clear.

Alison Sinclair, professor of molecular virology at the University of Sussex, said: “There may be several factors responsible for the differences and each of the at-risk groups may require a different explanation.”

She added that genetics is one reason, another is societal.

“There is evidence that workers with a high degree of contact with people have a higher risk, and part of the increased risk for [minorities] may be compounded by cultural and language differences as more of this group than the white ethnic group were born abroad,” Sinclair went on to say.

EFPIA on new treatments

EFPIA boss Nathalie Moll has said of late that: “Discovering and developing new treatments, diagnostics and vaccines is the first step to access to medicines.”

Well, it certainly wouldn’t do any harm, now, would it?

For its part, however, DG SANTE appears to remain unconvinced, despite the public being hungry for new treatmentsand, of course, an available and effective vaccine.

Regulation could be up for a reshape (again), with EFPIA well aware that embracing real-world data and new clinical trial design “may challenge the regulatory framework”.

The pharma industry body adds that “much can and should be done already now within the existing framework by recognition and efficient implementation of the lessons learned from the COVID-19 crises”.

A consultation on the way ahead runs until 7 July which EAPM will respond to asking for a high-level forum on better access to molecular diagnostic and biomarker testing to support an environment for early diagnosis so as to improve quality of life. 

Speaking of regulation and such like, French MEP Véronique Trillet-Lenoir says the EU should revise its legislation to address medicines shortages, not least via incentives to the pharmaceutical industry to relocate production to Europe.

The proposal from Renew Europe’s rapporteur on medicine shortages surfaced just as the European Parliament’s Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee (ENVI) is putting the final touches to its report on the issue.

This is geared towards further informing the Commission’s Pharmaceutical Strategy, which is due later in the year.

WHO loves ya, baby?

 Top medical advisor in the US for the coronavirus pandemic, Anthony Fauci, has said he plans to keep working with the World Health Organization (WHO), despite his President Donald Trump disassociating itself with the UN’shealth agency.

Fauci has been working with the WHO for decades, and he says: “They are an important part of the global health response to any outbreak,” as well as the ever-present issues, such as TB, malaria and tropical diseases. 

“So from my standpoint” he told Politico, “I have in the past and will continue to have a close relationship with WHO.”

Latvia and hospitals

The health ministry in Latvia has set up a working group to evaluate the review carried out by the country’s Health Inspectorate in 2019.

The Latvian news agency, LETA, recently reported that the Health Inspectorate found problems across the five different categories of hospitals, from those that provide therapy and chronic care to university hospitals. 

Problems include doctors working across several departments and finding it difficult to maintain high quality care; level-two hospitals having low workloads and carrying out few operations; and discrepancies in remuneration for similarly qualified specialists at different hospital levels. 

The ministry plans to decide on any permanent changes by 1 October, once it’s seen and digested the working group’s proposals.

That’s all for today, but most of these issues are sure to come up for discussion at our end-of-month virtual conference, so please do join us by registering and see the programme here.