EU negotiators agree new rules on vital medicines
Key takeaways
- A new agreement aims to tackle the drug shortages that have plagued the bloc.
- Charalambides said that people should no longer have to be worried about whether they could obtain essential medicines from their pharmacy or hospital.
- The agreed rules aim, among other things, to make it easier to use public funding to support the production of such medicines.
Why this matters: an international story with cross-border implications worth tracking.
A new agreement aims to tackle the drug shortages that have plagued the bloc. Among other things, it would make it easier to use public funds to support the production of essential medicines.
https://p.dw.com/p/5Dc BHNew rules aim to tackle occasional drug shortages in the EUImage: IMAGOAdvertisement European Union negotiators on Tuesday reached an agreement on rules that aim to bolster the bloc's supply chains for essential medicines and reduce its dependence on drug manufacturers outside the bloc.
The rules aim to combat the drug shortages that have occasionally affected the bloc in the past few years, where pharmacies have run low on certain medicines, including painkillers, antibiotics and fever medicine for children.