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  • 23-02-2021 17:37

EU/Presidency: Commissioner wants stronger health systems to fight pandemics


Lisbon, Feb. 23, 2021 (Lusa) - The European commissioner for health Stella Kyriakides said on Tuesday that the 27 European Union (EU) member states should prepare "more resilient" health systems to fight future pandemics.

"I believe that what we need to do is really focus not only on exiting this pandemic but also preparing for the next one with more resilient health systems," Kyriakides said in a video conference on how Covid-19 has changed research and innovation (R&I) policy.

The health commissioner recalled that the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic can only be successful if there is "coordination and solidarity" from all countries in the world.

This is why the HERA Incubator (acronym of the future European Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority), launched by the European Commission on 17 February, will be open to countries outside the European Union, such as Switzerland.

"HERA necessarily implies coordination between many similar agencies," he said, adding, however, that the proposal around this incubator will "move forward later this year" when the Commission will be able to give more details on this matter.

According to Kyriakides, the HERA incubator aims to "provide incentives to develop vaccines, to speed up their approval process and to ensure increased production capacity".

This European Commission initiative aims to detect Covid-19 strains better, involving researchers, biotech companies, manufacturers, regulators, and public authorities, to monitor variants, exchange data, and cooperate to adapt vaccines.

Regarding the European Health Area, another proposal from the European Commission, Kyriakides stressed that this has "received support from all member states" and added that the Future of Europe Conference would be "a good starting point to take this discussion forward".

The commissioner participated in the videoconference "How Covid-19 gave Europe a new blueprint for health R&I policy?", organised by the Science/Business Network, a platform that brings together European organisations from the areas of scientific research, innovation, industry and public policy.

BYC/ADB // ADB.

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