EU Commission: Strengthen medtech in Europe

EU Commissioner Stella Kyriakides assures BVMed that EU production will be strengthened and the necessary supply chains secured.

In its position paper on the German EU Council Presidency, BVMed advocated the establishment of a European strategic pandemic reserve for medical devices and offered its cooperation in order to prevent the borders within Europe from being closed again. EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides has now commented on the medical technology association, as reported by BVMed. "The Commission is working to address the Covid-19 pandemic in a coordinated manner with Member States to procure life-saving medical protective equipment and medicines," it said. This includes "strengthening the entire production base in the EU", but also "securing the necessary supply chains, also in cooperation with third countries to facilitate trade flows". internal market and, in a broader sense, the production and distribution value chains and to ensure the necessary supply of the health systems," reports the association.

Development of a European internal data market

A European Health Data Space (EHDS) aims to promote the exchange of health data and support research on new prevention strategies as well as on treatments, medicines, medical devices and outcomes, Kyriakides is quoted as saying. This is intended to remove obstacles caused by EU country borders, it is said. The European data and AI strategy, which started on February 19, 2020, is intended to provide new impetus “to lead society and the economy as a whole to a far-reaching digital transformation,” writes Kyriakides. In order to accelerate the digital transformation of healthcare, including telemedicine, "the Commission is working on a number of initiatives aimed at boosting the development and adoption of digital health, including artificial intelligence, in healthcare to improve access, availability and affordability of healthcare to improve that would bring concrete benefits to EU citizens," said Kyriakides to the BVMed.

MDR implementation aids

With regard to the EU Medical Devices Regulation (MDR), BVMed reports that, according to Kyriakides, the Commission has drawn up a considerable number of implementing acts and guidelines that have been approved by the Medical Devices Coordination Group. In addition, Kyriakides announced that several other implementation tools and guides are currently in development.

Source: Press release medtech-zwo from March 24.08.2020th, XNUMX