With the upcoming overhaul of the EU pharmaceutical legislation, cross-border health threats such as Covid-19 and war in Europe, the Nordic Pharmaceuticals Forum and Nordic cooperation are becoming ever more relevant.
This was clearly recognised at the joint Nordic summit held recently by the organisations in the Nordic Pharmaceuticals Forum.
- The world around us is changing rapidly, and the medicines sector is becoming increasingly complex. Challenges in the sector are often seen across national borders, and they are challenges that individual countries struggle to tackle alone, especially small countries with small markets such as the Nordics. Therefore, we have a lot to gain by finding solutions to our challenges together, says the Nordic Pharmaceuticals Forum.
The programme included presentations on cooperation between the Nordic medicines agencies, the Nordic Council of Ministers' health programme, the European Commission's work on shortages and affordability of medicines, and proposals for how the Nordic countries can improve access to antibiotics.
Knowledge sharing and networking also featured prominently at this year's summit. This included work to start identifying the initiatives the working groups under the Nordic Pharmaceuticals Forum could focus on in the years to come, as the Nordics become perhaps the most integrated pharmaceuticals region in Europe.
Focus for work in the years to come will include security of supply, joint procurement and price negotiations, horizon scanning, manufacturing and the environmental area.
We have developed a common framework for joint price negotiations on new medicines. We exchange experience within standard terms for Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products. We have developed common environmental criteria for medicines - and applied them in one of our many joint Nordic tenders. Moreover, the rest of Europe considers our collaboration as best practice in public procurement, security of supply, sustainability, horizon scanning and cross-border cooperation.
- We can be very proud of our collaboration! We're also delighted that, almost 10 years into the collaboration, we're still experiencing good energy and a common understanding of the importance of the work in the Nordic Pharmaceuticals Forum. And how we can continue to develop this collaboration. Therefore, we strongly believe that it makes sense for us in the Nordics to continue to move closer together on our way to becoming perhaps the most integrated pharmaceuticals region in Europe, says the Nordic Pharmaceuticals Forum.
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Karen Torgny
Senior Specialist- Communication
I’m responsible for overall communication at Amgros, including PR. And I help to ensure that we communicate with the surrounding world in an open and engaging manner.