In view of the upcoming Spanish Presidency of the Council of the European Union, the No es San alliance is submitting this letter to the Minister of Health, José Manuel Miñones, to request that he make these issues related to European pharmaceutical and global health strategies a priority during the Spanish mandate.
Dear Minister,
First, we would like to take this opportunity to congratulate you on your appointment. Working for the people and guaranteeing one of the most fundamental rights of all, the right to health, is truly an enormous privilege. For this vital task, you can always rely on the movement in favour of access to medicines and the No es Sano campaign.
Our primary goal is to improve pharmaceutical policy and the current system of innovation in the interests of transparency, efficacy, quality, accessibility and affordability of medicines and all health technologies. To this end, the organisations involved in this campaign have been working for over seven years at both the national and regional levels, and many of us have also been active in other European and global spaces and networks.
Following the recent COVID-19 crisis, it seems more important than ever to address global health by learning from the mistakes that were made, and the evidence laid bare by barriers to access, affordability of drugs and vaccines, as well as aspects related to innovation, production and regulation, among others. The Government will have the opportunity to work on these issues during the Spanish Presidency of the EU, since many of the reports that address these issues are currently in progress. Both the review of pharmaceutical legislation, work on which is well advanced, and the European Global Health Strategy should become political priorities for Spain during its presidency in the second half of 2023.
The undersigned organisations would therefore like to call attention to the vital importance of these initiatives and, in particular, to the following:
Regarding the European Pharmaceutical Strategy, we ask that you make it a priority of your Ministry:
- To fast-track the pharmaceutical regulatory proposals and directive, presented by the Commission, thus allowing the process to continue so that work can move forward during 2023 and ensure the principle of access to and affordability of safe and effective medicines, as well as the general interest above all else. To this we would like to add:
- All necessary measures, consistent with the European framework, to ensure transparency in terms of R&D costs at all stages of the development and production of medicines and health technologies, as set out in recent resolutions by the World Health Assembly.
- Promote public interest criteria for all public funding invested in innovation and development of health technologies. These would be conditions incorporated into contracts with private companies to ensure the return on such investment through transparency, pricing and intellectual property clauses, among others.
- Reduce the duration of the current incentives for exclusive marketing related to data protection. These mechanisms have failed to prove adequate for responding to society’s health needs. Incentives should always be fair and proportionate, safeguarding the public interest.
- Discourage additional intellectual property incentives, such as transferable exclusivity bonds, when it comes to addressing the development of new antibiotics.
Prioritise and advocate for public health and patient needs and introduce changes to the current legislative framework that address stock-outs and ensure permanent availability of a medicine.
In relation to the European Global Health Strategy, we ask you to make it a priority for your Ministry:
- The strategy needs to address access to medicines and health technologies. To this end, new measures must be envisaged for all aspects that represent a barrier. This is an issue that should not be omitted from the text and the opportunity to do so is now.
- The development of global health R&D policy must be anchored in people’s needs, with a budget increase that ties the results of such innovation to global access, affordability, transparency and shared intellectual property, as well as the promotion of other alternative innovation models that do not depend on intellectual property, with global production and transfer capacity.
- Also, we ask that you incorporate a trade policy into the text that makes a more effective and extended use of TRIPS flexibilities in the event of national and global health crises.
We thank you in advance for your time and attention and look forward to your response as well as any questions that may require clarification.
Kind regards,
The organisations of No es Sano
