Time to register for seminar on Serology testing for SARS-CoV and 20% EU budget for disease prevention

The European Alliance for Personalised Medicine (EAPM) will hold a seminar tomorrow (17 December) entitled ‘Forward together with innovation: Understanding the need and framing the discussion for Serology testing for SARS-CoV’, perfect for everyone who is interested in attending a high-level policymakers session before the Christmas break, including keynote speakers who are detailed below, writes EAPM Executive Director Denis Horgan. 

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to pose a major threat to public health. Despite us not being able to meet face-to-face, events such as this still allow the pulling together of leading experts in the arena of personalised medicine drawn from patient groups, payers, health-care professionals plus industry, science, academic and research representatives.

As set out in the Commission Communication on short-term EU health preparedness, robust testing strategies and sufficient testing capacities are essential aspects of preparedness and response to COVID-19, allowing for early detection of potentially infectious individuals and providing visibility on infection rates and transmission within communities. While serology testing for SARS-CoV-2 can be beneficial and potentially even necessary in assessment of vaccine effectiveness, there are issues whether the country will utilize this technology.

A key role of the seminar is to bring together experts to agree policies by consensus and take our conclusions to policymakers.  Speakers and agenda is here. 

Bettina Borisch, Executive Director World Federation of Public Health Associations (WFPHA) (10 Minutes); Vicki Indenbaum, Laboratory expert working on sero-epidemiological Studies, World Health Organisation (10 minutes); Charles Price, Health security and vaccination Unit, European Commission; Stefania Boccia, Professor, Department of Health Sciences and  Public Health, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore; Ursula Wiedermann-Schmidt, Professor of Tropical Medicine, Medical University Vienna  and Jean-Charles Clouet, Siemens-healthineers.

 You can register, here and the agenda is here

Questions to be addressed

• Testing strategies: restricted vs. systematic - Is there a need to revise earlier recommendations?
• Should approaches to testing adapt to different  types of vaccines, also in view of progressively lifting containment measures?
• What is the state of play of serological testing? Could/should we anticipate recommendations before it becomes accessible?

Attendees will be drawn from key stakeholders from the community whose interaction will create a cross-sectoral, highly relevant and dynamic discussion forum.

In other news...EU4Health

On Monday (14 December), negotiators from the Commission, Parliament and Council agreed to the biggest budget ever (some €5.1 billion) for the EU’s health programme EU4Health, and Renew Europe’s shadow rapporteur Véronique Trillet-Lenoir said some 20% of the funds will go to disease prevention. Civil society will also have its say on the functioning of the programme through a stakeholder consultation. At least once a year, the Commission will update Parliament on the outcome of the consultation as well as deliberations in the steering group.

Essential workers given a nudge for first vaccines from VAX

According to DG SANTE’s Director General Sandra Gallina, certain workers outside the health care sector may be in for a dose of good news. Vaccines should be given to “those that absolutely need them for their everyday job”, she said as well as health care workers and the most vulnerable. Gallina also gave a rundown on the logistics of vaccine distribution. Manufacturers will first take the vaccines to national distribution hubs. It will then fall to individual countries to distribute them to vaccination centres where people can get their jabs.

The round table is tomorrow from 09h30–11h CET, please click here to register and the agenda is here.

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