The availability of medicines has been a longstanding concern in the EU. Throughout the last decade, the issue of medicines shortages has become systemic, affecting treatment regimens, but also the health of EU citizens and, ultimately, the resilience of health systems in Member States.

The COVID-19 pandemic, Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified military aggression against Ukraine and the current consequential energy crisis have also brought to the fore questions regarding the impact of the EU’s dependency on third countries for medicines, raw materials and ingredients used in pharmaceutical manufacturing. These developments have brought additional pressures which could result in further vulnerabilities in pharmaceutical supply chains.

Therefore, the Pharmaceutical Strategy for Europe (2020) identified security of supply as one of its central objectives, leading to the establishment of a Structured Dialogue on security of medicines supply.

The results of this work are now available: we are pleased to inform you that the Commission Staff Working Document entitled “Vulnerabilities of the global supply chains of medicines - Structured dialogue on the security of supply of medicines supply” is now published!

The purpose of this Staff Working Document is:

(1) to present the main findings of the Structured Dialogue that should be considered in the analysis of supply security;

(2) to map areas of focus at EU level, including both new and ongoing actions, for consideration and to inform further actions to improve the security of supply and the availability of critical medicines, active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and raw materials.

Based on this document, the Commission will now continue its reflection, notably in the context of the upcoming reform of the pharmaceutical legislation, in order to formulate policy options and put forward actions to strengthen the continuity and security of supply in the EU, in particular for those medicines considered to be most critical to health systems.

Download your copy or find it at this link!