Heated Debates at the Informal Meeting of EU Health Ministers

The European Commission's proposal to shorten procedures for the introduction of new medicines has been resisted by some member states, including Bulgaria. EU health ministers have agreed to develop a new mechanism. Full unanimity, however, was achieved for the policies aiming to result in healthier nutrition of children.

Vytenis Andriukaitis, EU Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, said it is difficult to make a common universal legislation in the area of healthy nutrition.

It is possible to use some tax incentives and relieves, there are such practices in some countries, he said.

We talked about the role of the environment and marketing and the role of the Common Agricultural Policy, Kiril Ananiev, Bulgaria’s Minister of Health said.

Reducing the pressure of marketing and advertising for children especially for foods with high content of sugar and salt, Andriukaitis said. The European Union will continue to fund programmes such as fruit and school milk ones.

We are working on some improvements to the Consumer Protection Directive, and we expect manufacturers to adopt their own code of conduct, Andriukaitis said.

Not such consensus has met the European Commission's proposal to shorten the path of innovative medicines to patients.

The commissionss proposal only concerns clinical aspects, the granting of marketing authorizations for medicines that are the same for all memebr states. This assessment means equal access to all new drugs for all member states. Reimbursing, pricing, economic analysis are things that each state decides, the EU commisioner said.

It turns out that many countries, including Germany, disagree and insist that everyone decides when and what therapy to introduce.

Kiril Ananiev, Minister of Health: It is a question of balance between the therapeutic effect and the price.

By the next ministerial meeting in June, the parties will work on developing a new model for access to innovative therapies.

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