ALMHU, represented by its President Jorge Capapey, has participated in the virtual meeting "Positioning of Spain in the update of the European legislation on Orphan Medicinal Products", a forum for debate on the future changes that the European Commission plans to make to the legislation on rare diseases.
The meeting, organised by BioInnova Consulting, with sponsorship by AELMHU partners GW and Biogen and the UCB laboratory, was opened by the Secretary of State for Health, Silvia Calzón.
Jorge Capapey took part in the sectoral round table, assuring that "the companies that make up AELMHU are committed to researching treatments for unmet needs and to demanding from the administration that these therapies reach patients as soon as possible", and are open to "all kinds of agreements with the administration" to make this a reality. Capapey also stressed that "investment in orphan drugs does not only recognise the effort made in innovation in this area, but is directly reinvested in the development of treatments for a majority of minority diseases that currently have no cure".
Cristina Bando, CEO of GW stressed that "patients and their doctors deserve to have access to medicines that are effective and have clinical evidence" and highlighted that "the pharmaceutical industry plays a decisive role in the development of medicines that respond to unmet medical needs through continued investment in research". Finally, Félix Benguría, Director of Institutional Relations at Biogen, concluded the day by remarking that "it is essential to continue to strengthen the rare disease environment in the EU, building on the achievements to date, sustaining the necessary investments to boost investment in areas of high unmet need and supporting the continued development of innovation where treatments already exist".
