European Parliament hearing on the impact of austerity
Lack of access to medicines is one of the consequences of the financial crisis. This is one of the conclusions of a European Parliament hearing, taking place on 16May (chaired by Alejandro Cercas MEP (SD, Spain). Though the crisis has created opportunities to both reduce public pharmaceutical expenditure and maximise the benefits of the public investment in medicines, not all opportunities are being taken.
The examples of Romania (with the previous government deciding t close 67 hospitals) and Ireland (where medicines sometimes cost up to four times more than in other member states, even though the country being home to many pharmaceutical companies) illustrated the current problems in health care provision..
Several potential solutions were brought forward, such as the idea for member states to buy medicines together. Investing in research to develop better medicines is another. As part of the Horizon 2020 programme, some, €80 billion has been earmarked for research aimed at improving health promotion and prevention.
In the future, personalised medicine where a treatment or drug is tailored to an individual's biological and genetic features will become increasingly important. Not only will this increase the effectiveness of the treatment, it will also decrease the toxicity of treatments by avoiding ineffective, expensive and harmful treatments for patients.
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