European Commission should prepare for joint procurement of coronavirus vaccine once available, Chris Fearne says

The European Commission should begin preparing the groundwork for joint procurement of the COVID-19 vaccine once it is authorised, Health Minister Chris Fearne said. 

On Thursday Deputy Prime Minister Chris Fearne met European Commissioner for Health Stella Kyriakides.

The meeting focused on improving cooperation between Member States on COVID-19, the upcoming European Pharma strategy, including medicine price transparency to improve access, and the EU Cancer Plan.

During the meeting, Fearne explained the initiatives and measures Malta is currently undertaking to contain the spread of the virus.

Fearne said that at this stage Malta is still in its pre-containment stage, as it is one of the few EU Member states where no cases have tested positive.

On Thursday, it was confirmed that no coronavirus cases were recorded so far in Malta, with 22 suspected cases resulting in a negative test. 

There are, at present, 83,385 cases of the infection worldwide, with 2,858 deaths reported, usually due to underlying medical issues. 36,602, or 91%, have recovered from the virus. 

The European Commission is currently engaging with all Member States in coordinating their respective preparedness activities and is also facilitating information exchange amongst Member States through the work of the Health Security Committee.

This would ensure that all the information gained from cases connected to the virus outbreak in Italy will be shared among the Member States.

Fearne encouraged the European Commission to prepare all the groundwork to launch a joint procurement process to purchase a COVID-19 vaccine as soon as the vaccine is authorised. 

Regarding this Kyriakides said that that access to medicines and the need to address exorbitant prices for medicinal products is a problem of all Member States, and is a priority for this European Commission. The measures to address these issues will be included within the Pharmaceutical Strategy that the European Commission will be launching later this year. 

The European Commission will also be launching an EU-wide cancer plan which is currently under public consultation. The Deputy Prime Minister and the Health Commissioner agreed that all pillars within the plan, namely prevention measures, early detection and diagnosis, treatment and care, and quality of life, are equally important.