On 30 November 2022, the Commission published its first State of Health Preparedness Report. This report is an important inspiration for the work of HERA, the EU’s watchtower for emerging health threats. HERA strengthens Europe’s ability to prevent, detect, and rapidly respond to cross-border health emergencies by ensuring the development, manufacturing, procurement, and equitable distribution of critical medical countermeasures.

The report builds on the lessons learned during the pandemic and the work undertaken to strengthen preparedness and response. It also identifies new challenges facing public health authorities and outlines the concrete actions that the Commission will take to address them directly.

Byestablishing the Health Emergency and Response Authority (HERA), the Commission took important steps in all areas of health preparedness, including detection, prevention, research, international cooperation, response, investment, and fight against disinformation.

Building on the three priority health threats identified in July 2022 (i.e. (i) pathogens with high pandemic potential; (ii) chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear threats, and (iii) threats resulting from antimicrobial resistance), the Report sets out key actions to further improve the EU's preparedness in the area of medical countermeasures in the next year.

Among these actions, the report sets out 5 flagship initiatives for 2023:

1. Establish a state-of-the-art IT system for intelligence gathering, threat assessment, mapping the availability of medical countermeasures and management systems for stockpiling (HERA MCMI platform).
2. Develop medical countermeasures:
   - Against antimicrobial resistance (AMR) 
   - Chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) and 
   - Innovative vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics, for COVID-19 and beyond
   - Contribute to the vaccine 2.0 strategy, which aims for investments worth at least € 80 million.
3. Reserve manufacturing capabilities for vaccines in the event of a new public health emergency (EU FAB)
4. Establish a financing mechanism - “HERA INVEST” - for an amount of €100 million, to invest in the development of innovative medical countermeasures.
5. Develop an EU strategic approach to stockpiling, including of Chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) medical countermeasures and other medical items.

International coordination and global collaboration are also key. Therefore the State of Health Preparedness report also presents strategic partnerships with third countries to reinforce preparedness capabilities in the area of medical countermeasures. The report should also be read in conjunction with the new EU Global Health Strategy, which puts the EU at the center of international efforts to strengthen preparedness for future health emergencies.

For the different actions presented in the report, the HERA Work Plan 2023 outlineswhat will be achieved in more detail.

Links: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_22_7154