On 25 March 2013, members of the VPH Policy Affairs Working Group attended a conference in Dublin hosted by the Irish Presidency of the Council of the European Union on “Innovation and Patient Access to Personalised Medicine”.
The conference addressed a range of topics including the need for alignment in the regulation of personalised medicine, how to empower patients and how to secure their access to personalised medicine.
The conference saw the participation of high level speakers including representatives of the European Commission, Members of the European Parliament and top level European experts in the field of personalised medicine.
Speaking at the event, Minister for Health, Dr. James Reilly strongly supported the need to reduce barriers to personalised medicine in the EU and stated that “We are losing a lot of research in Europe due to red tape.”
The European Commission is expected to publish a report on personalised medicine in the EU sometime this year. It is clear that the topic of personalised medicine remains very much on the political agenda of policy makers at EU level and the current Presidency of the Council of the European Union.
