The EU policy perspective
Richard Sterneberg
European lobbyist, EU regulatory issues & disease awareness campaigns, Associate G+Europe
…emphasised the importance of navigating the European Commission, Council and Parliament in order to influence, in a positive way, the health policy debate and decision-making across and within individual national member states on Personalised Medicine
Current Policy Agenda
“Personalised Medicine” has hit the EU agenda, with high-level debate on appropriate involvement versus other
investments in public health. Issues include:
- Provision of appropriate regulatory framework — eg for approval of new treatments/diagnostics and clinical trial approaches, assessing cost-effectiveness and added clinical efficacy of use of diagnostic test compared with current practice.
- Ethical issues — including patient data protection and the EU universal aspiration to deliver equality of healthcare — are not to be underestimated.
- Implementation — eg the ability to incorporate new technology into existing member state health systems — not easily done.
Engaging with Policy Making
In the context of inherent mistrust of the pharma industry it is important that Public Policy people within Pharma and Diagnostics Companies engage and show willingness to work through the agenda, with cross-industry collaboration and commitment to demonstrate how Personalised Medicine can contribute to improved standard of patient care across Europe.