Minister for Health at the European Commission's “Structured Dialogue Initiative”

The Minister for Health, Marta Temido, on behalf of the Presidency of the Council of the EU, today took part in the first meeting of the “Structured Dialogue Initiative”, set up by the European Commission (EC i) under the EU Pharmaceutical Strategy.

Taking part in the meeting, which was organised by the European Commission and held via video conference, were the Vice-President of the EC, Margaritis Schinas i, Commissioner Stella Kyriakides i and Commissioner Thierry Breton i. Also present were representatives of the EC's Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety, as well as representatives of the European Parliament, the European pharmaceutical industry and patient and health professionals' associations.

As access to medicinal products and medical devices is one of the priorities of the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the European Union, Marta Temido highlighted the concerns about the impact of the shortage of critical medicines in national health systems, caused by breakdowns in production chains. During her speech, the Minister for Health underlined the importance of access to medicinal products and medical devices being reinforced in terms of availability, equity and universality, while also emphasising the relevance of identifying vulnerabilities and dependencies that affect the production chains. Finally, she appealed for transparency and information sharing between all the agents involved in the production of pharmaceutical products.

The Pharmaceutical Strategy for Europe, as adopted on 25 November 2020, proposes a structured dialogue initiative to reinforce the resilience of the pharmaceutical supply chain and ensure the security of the supply of medicines to respond to European public health needs.

This session was the launch of the “Structured Dialogue Initiative”, under the scope of which further meetings are to be expected.