Clemens Martin Auer, director general of Austria’s Ministry of Health, could be said to take a pragmatic and original perspective when it comes to European and national policy. In an interview with Health Policy Watch during the recent European Health Forum in Bad Gastein, Austria, he discussed health priorities for the current Austrian presidency of the European Union and beyond. He also discussed ongoing efforts by a number of European countries to address high prices of medicines and public funding for R&D. This is the second of two parts. Continue reading ->
More dedicated to scientific research and much more “colourful” than the World Health Summit were descriptions for the 14th Global Grand Challenges Meeting 2018 that ended last night in Berlin and brought together some top researchers, policymakers and civil society. Like the WHS, the Grand Challenges Meeting focused on antimicrobial resistances and pandemic pathogens. But it also talked a little more on the issue of how better to incentivize R&D to fulfil SDG3, the UN Sustainable Development Goal on health, according to participants. Continue reading ->
BERLIN -- Ten years after establishing the Berlin World Health Summit, the M8 alliance of medical institutes around the globe sees some noticeable progress in political commitment to the health agenda. “Gifts” presented at the opening ceremony yesterday in the German capital include the announcement of German Health Minister Jens Spahn to establish a Hub for Global Health and step up its financial contributions to the World Health Organization (WHO) to 115 million euros over the next four years. The three-day summit also will receive a global action plan to catch up with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3 on health and well-being for all. Continue reading ->
Dorli Kahr-Gottlieb writes: For more than 20 years, every October, around 500 leading health experts from governmental institutions, civil society, the academic world, and the private sector meet up at the European Health Forum Gastein (EHFG). They meet to discuss Europe’s contemporary health challenges and address pressing issues around the sustainability of European health systems in a Davos like setting, in the presence of Ministers of Health and senior European Commission and WHO officials. This year’s edition of the EHFG, called simply “Gastein” by the cognoscente, is an official Austrian EU Presidency event. Over the three days, Gastein is not going to shy away from the big European political debates such as how much of a role Europe should play in shaping health policy; but also it is going to take on some of the big global health policy challenges. Continue reading ->
As many voices in Europe are getting louder about the increasing threat of medicines shortages, the European Medicines Agency and the Heads of Medicines Agencies task force on improving the availability of medicines in Europe just released its 2019/2020 work programme. Working groups tasked to tackle specific issues as well as a multi-stakeholder workshop in November are being set up. Continue reading ->
A record more than 41,000 children and adults in the World Health Organization European Region have been infected with measles - one of the most vaccine-preventable infectious diseases known to man – in the first 6 months of 2018, according to a newly published WHO press release. The total number for this period far exceeds the 12-month totals reported for every other year this decade, and this has policymakers grasping for ways to address the rise, while a WHO official says elimination is possible. Continue reading ->
The European Medicines Agency (EMA), which is oversees the scientific evaluation, supervision and safety of medicines in the European Union, will scale back activities through 2019 due to significant staff loss when it moves from London to Amsterdam in March 2019 as a result of Brexit. Some of the areas that could be affected include the agency's work at the international level on supply chain integrity, antimicrobial resistance, vaccines, and clinical data analysis. Continue reading ->