Developing medicinal products against COVID-19
29.9.2021
Question for written answer E-004451/2021
to the Commission
Rule 138
Ladislav Ilčić (ECR)
Currently in the EU, depending on the country, between 20-50% of people do not want to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Regardless of what we think of their decision, we cannot ignore this fact. Since the line of the European and national institutions is that vaccination is not compulsory, the political focus needs to shift from convincing those not yet vaccinated to do so towards providing proven treatments and developing effective new therapeutic medicinal products to prevent infections and severe cases. This is crucial to restore Member States to a pre-crisis state and to bring down the threat posed by COVID-19 to that of other curable diseases.
- 1.On 6 May 2021, the Commission launched the EU strategy on COVID-19 therapeutics, with the aim of establishing a portfolio of therapies and, ultimately, making five new medicinal products available on the EU market by the end of the year. Can the Commission provide an update on the strategy’s progress, the total budget and the amount invested to date, and explain the safeguards in place to ensure that its ‘portfolio approach’ does not result in a recurrence of the joint procurement problems faced with the vaccines in January 2021?
- 2.In the fourth quarter of 2021, will it put forward a proposal to amend the general EU legislation on medicinal products for human use? Can it explain how this proposal will improve the work under the EU strategy on COVID-19 therapeutics in terms of the innovation, market approval, production, application and accessibility of COVID-19 therapeutics?