Formally inaugurated on April 24, 2024, the Critical Medicines Alliance (CMA) was officially launched the next day in Brussels. The EHC, represented by Daria Camilli, Communications and Education Manager, participated in the closed-door launch together with the representatives of other members of the CMA as well as the European authorities.
The full member list can be found here.
Background
This Critical Medicines Alliance is a new consultative mechanism bringing together national authorities, industry, civil society, the Commission, and EU agencies to identify the best measures to address and avoid shortages of critical medicines. It complements regulatory measures in the proposed EU pharmaceutical reform and is at the centre of the new strategic and coordinated industrial approach to enhance the security of supply of the most critical medicines.
The work of the Alliance will focus on critical medicines that face the greatest vulnerabilities, based on the ongoing Commission vulnerability analysis for a sub-set of substances listed on the Union list of critical medicines, first published by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in December 2023.
More about CMA here.
Next steps
The Alliance will use the outcome of the pilot assessment of critical medicines
as a point of reference
➔ As of May, members of the Alliance will collaborate in thematic Working Groups
➔ Throughout Q4 2024, the Working Groups will make recommendations
based on the identified vulnerabilities
➔ By the end of 2024, the Steering Board will come forward with a Strategic
Plan, which the Alliance Forum will consider and endorse
➔ This plan will establish a multi-annual set of actions aimed at guiding the
work of EU decision-makers
➔ The initial mandate of the Alliance is of 5 years
Further reading
More about the CMA on the EC website here.
Union list of critical medicines here.