Ensuring access to medicines: how to stimulate innovation to meet patients’ needs?

ABSTRACT

This policy brief is one of a series on addressing market and policy failures in the pharmaceutical sector that was prepared for the Austrian EU Presidency. It aims to inform discussions about stimulating more meaningful productivity in terms of R&D. More specifically, it explores how R&D efforts can be steered to areas of unmet clinical needs and how efficiency in the R&D process can be increased. It also explicitly considers concrete options for strengthening cooperation between EU Member States in this context. The brief shows how only a comprehensive approach that combines initiatives to guarantee funding for R&D, optimize evidence generation and align regulatory requirements can effectively tackle innovation deficits. An overall vision with greater policy coherence and backed by strong political commitment and transparency is needed.