How to Optimize Cross-border Cooperation to Support Equitable Access to Advanced Therapies?

Advanced Therapies Medicinal Products (ATMPs) are highly personalised treatments with the potential to transform the lives of patients. Due to their complex manufacturing and distribution processes, the need for trained healthcare providers and/or the rarity of the condition they aim to address, many of these therapies are only available in a small number of treatment centres in Europe. As a result, many European patients may need to travel cross-border to benefit from treatment with a transformative therapy. The European legislative provisions for patients to access healthcare abroad and have the costs covered by their national health insurance are  insufficient to secure timely access to these transformative treatments. 

On 10 November (9.30am-11.00am) the European Alliance for Transformative Therapies ( TRANSFORM ) MEP Interest Group hosted an online event to discuss ‘ How to Optimize Cross-border Cooperation to Support Equitable Access to Advanced Therapies’. Experts and policy-makers gave consideration how to adapt the current legislative framework and upscale the European infrastructure to overcome the current access challenges to ATMPs and to secure equitable delivery and reimbursement of these treatments in the EU.

Speakers

• Alessandra Moretti, Member of the European Parliament (S&D, Italy), TRANSFORM Co-Chair
• Ondřej Knotek (Renew Europe, Czechia), Co-Chair
• Tomislav Sokol, Member of the European Parliament (EPP, Croatia), TRANSFORM Member
• Caroline Hager, Team Leader and member of the Cross-border Healthcare Expert Group, Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety (DG SANTE), European Commission
• Simone Boselli, EU Public Affairs Director, EURORDIS – Rare Diseases Europe
• Michela Gabaldo, Head of Translational Project Management & Regulatory Affairs, Fondazione Telethon
• Christoph J. Rupprecht, Head of Department Health Policy & Health Economics, AOK Rheinland/Hamburg
• Thomas Bols, Head of Government Affairs and Public Policy for EMEA & Asia Pacific Region, PTC Therapeutics
• Mohit Jain, Vice President Market Access EMEA, BioMarin Pharmaceutical

Q&A with the audience, including interventions by TRANSFORM Alliance members:

• Harun Šabić, Committee Member and Survivor Representative, Childhood Cancer International – Europe (CCI Europe)
• Dr Giovanni Migliaccio, Scientific Director of Centro Valutazioni Biologiche e Farmacologiche (CVBF),coordinator of EPTRI, the European Paediatric Translational Research Infrastructure
• Dr Ioanna Psalti, Policy advisor, European Alliance for Vision Research and Ophthalmology (EU-EYE)
• Amanda Bok, CEO, European Haemophilia Consortium (EHC)

The event was moderated by Jacki Davis.