„Iššūkiai ir tikslinės galimybės integruoti naujoves į Europos sveikatos priežiūros sistemas“: užsiregistruokite dabar į EAPM konferenciją, kuri vyks lapkričio 10 d.!

Good afternoon, and welcome to the latest update from the European Alliance for Personalised Medicine (EAPM). Following EAPM’s success with the virtual conference on 27 October, there is news of the next EAPM conference, which is just around the corner, rašo EAPM vykdomasis direktorius dr. Denisas Horganas.

‘Unmet needs in health care’

The upcoming event, on 10 November, starting at 8.30am CET, will be the third Presidency conference that EAPM will be holding during 2021. All three events reflect the nature of the relative presidency policies in the health-care arena, but also act as major events during what will be the second full year of the two new legislative bodies - the European Parliament and the European Commission.

The conference’s title will be ‘Redefining the unmet needs in health care and the Regulatory Challenge’, and is EAPM’s Autumn Presidency Conference. You can register for the conference – click čia to do so, and the conference agenda is čia.

Despite the many tangible advantages of innovation in health care, the take-up in Europe has been relatively slow. This is not because personalised medicine and personalised health care doesn’t work – it does, and very well - but it is because the components and interactions involved in bringing personalised healthcare to Europe’s citizens are complex. But bring it we must, as a healthier Europe will mean citizens spending less and less time in hospitals undergoing expensive treatment regimes, often at a direct cost to the taxpayer. A shift towards preventative medicine will reduce costs still further - The conference will look at this regulatory framework.

Key topics that will be addressed include:

• In vitro diagnostics regulation
• The EU’s pharmaceutical strategy
• Digital Health Europe - data space for genomics
• ES kovos su vėžiu planas

You can register for the conference – click čia to do so, and the conference agenda is čia.

reklama

Data Act rejected by Commission scrutiny board

The Regulatory Scrutiny Board is an independent body within the Commission that advises the College of Commissioners. It provides central quality control and support for Commission impact assessments and evaluations at early stages of the legislative process - the EU’s upcoming bill to promote data sharing faces a likely delay after this independent European Commission advisory body issued a negative opinion on the plans on Wednesday (27 October). The bill, known as the Data Act, was due to be presented by the Commission on 1 December, but will now likely be pushed back to next year, one official said.

EU joint procurement of medicines should be expanded says Malta deputy prime minister

The system of joint procurement used by EU countries to procure vaccines and other medical equipment during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic should be made permanent through the creation of a new Europe-wide mechanism, Deputy Prime Minister Chris Fearne said this morning. 

Fearne that the EU’s successful vaccination program had shown the advantages of member states pooling resources together for a common objective. 

Fearne argued it would be a pity for such a system not to be brought forward and expanded. 

Schinas: ‘EU treaties posed no barrier to pandemic response’

Commission Vice President Margaritis Schinas has indicated that he would be open to treaty change to give the EU more health powers in the future. Schinas said that the Commission "exhausted and exploited every inch of EU competences" that it was accorded under the EU treaties. 

The Commission vice president described the EU's role during the coronavirus crisis as a "small European miracle". He pointed to the vaccine joint procurement program, as well as the EU health union legislative package and the newly-created Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA) as successes. As the bloc moved from the "fire-fighting" stage to "construction work," Schinas said he was open to revisiting the legal basis of the EU's limited health competences if member countries were in favour. "But," he added, "being open to this argument doesn’t mean that the existing legal basis didn’t help us do many good things."

UN-backed global collaboration to end pandemic 

A new strategy announced on Thursday (28 October) by the World Health Organization (WHO) calls for $23.4 billion to combat inequities in accessing COVID-19 vaccines, tests and treatments, as cases of the disease mount globally for the first time in two months. The funding for the Access to COVID Tools (ACT) Accelerator – the UN-backed global initiative to end the pandemic — is critical to prevent some five million additional potential deaths, as well as $5.3 trillion in global economic losses. 

The strategic plan and budget for the mechanism, a partnership of leading global health agencies established last April, will help the most at-risk countries to secure and deploy these tools between now and September 2022. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said through its vaccine pillar, COVAX, the ACT Accelerator has so far delivered 425 million doses to 144 countries alone. Nearly 130 million tests, as well as increased supply of oxygen, personal protective equipment (PPE) and treatments, have also been distributed. “But the ACT Accelerator has so far been prevented from fulfilling its potential by severe supply and financing constraints,” said Tedros, speaking during the regular press briefing from WHO headquarters in Geneva.

He warned that unless the pandemic is controlled everywhere, the virus will mutate and continue to circulate everywhere. “The high transmissibility of the Delta variant has reinforced what we have been saying since we set up the ACT Accelerator: vaccines alone will not end the pandemic. We need all tools – vaccines, tests, treatments, PPE and public health measures - to fight COVID-19 and save lives and livelihoods now.”

Damning report says NHS Test and Trace programme has not delivered its objectives

The UK’s Test and Trace programme “has not achieved its main objective” to enable people to return to a more normal way of life despite being handed “eye-watering” sums of money, according to a report by members of parliament (MPs). 

Test and Trace had a budget of £22 billion in 2020–21 and it estimates that it spent £13.5 billion of that.  The NHS’s flagship Test and Trace programme has failed to achieve “its main objective” to cut COVID-19 infection levels in the UK, despite getting an “eye-watering” sum of £37 billion since May 2020, a report released by the House of Commons’ Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has found.

At the time of its launch, Boris Johnson claimed the program would be “world-beating” so no surprise there in terms of vaulting optimism….

Good news (for babies) to finish - Breast milk can contain COVID antibodies 

Although babies and young children are at lower risk of getting very sick with COVID-19 compared to older adults, a small proportion of babies will require hospital care. There has been immense interest among scientists, health-care workers and new mothers especially in understanding whether potentially protective antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) can be provided to babies via breast milk. But what does the evidence tell us? 

After COVID infection, antibodies have been found to persist in breast milk for at least six months, with emerging data suggesting they are still abundant ten months later. Antibodies are found in breast milk even after mild SARS-CoV-2 infections, and in women who have no symptoms at all. Meanwhile, the breast milk of women who are vaccinated while lactating (who haven’t had COVID-19) has been found to contain significant levels of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies after vaccination.

And that is all from EAPM for this week – don’t forget, you can register for the upcoming EAPM conference ČIA ir spustelėkite nuorodą, kad pamatytumėte darbotvarkę čia. Stay safe, have an excellent weekend!

Pasidalinkite šiuo straipsniu: