Access to safe and affordable medicines and EU support for pharmaceutical innovation were discussed in the EU parliament last week.

Food and Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides presented the new Pharmaceutical Strategy, which was adopted, among other things, as an important component of the new EU Health Union.

In the European Parliament, the majority welcomed the new Strategy, which responded to Parliament's demands to step up efforts to tackle drug shortages - a problem exacerbated by COVID-19 and moving towards more sensitive drug use and disposal to prevent environmental and public health risks.

The need for all EU citizens to have equal access to high-quality medicines and the need to reduce the EU's dependence on imports of active pharmaceutical ingredients from non-EU countries by increasing their production in Europe and supporting innovation in the EU pharmaceutical industry was emphasized.

The European Pharmaceutical Strategy covers the whole domain of pharmaceutical products, but also some aspects of medical products. It creates synergies with the Green Plan and the EU Strategic Approach to Environmental Pharmaceuticals. The strategy marks the beginning of a process involving several legislative and non-legislative actions to be initiated by Parliament and agreed upon in the coming years.

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