Health Industry Leaders respond to EPF's Open Memo on COVID-19

16 April 2020

Given the profound concerns of EPF member organisations regarding the impact of COVID-19 on their communities, EPF shared an Open Memo to health industry representatives outlining the main challenges for patients with chronic diseases and our expectations regarding their on-going commitment and contribution in these unprecedented times. The Open Memo underlines the important role and responsibilities of industry as we perceive them, underpinned by core ethical principles and fairness, the meaningful role that patient organisations can and should play, and the need for cooperation in managing the crisis in order to ensure accessibility and affordability. We have undertaken a similar exercise with other stakeholders.

The Open Memo also emphasises the importance of extracting key learnings from the COVID-19 situation that will help us move forward, collectively, towards deeper health cooperation at European level, for the benefit of patients and citizens.
 
Here are the responses received from EFPIA, Medicines for Europe and Med-Tech Europe, AEGSP, EUCOPE, COCIR and EuropaBio

A very sincere thanks to all involved for your engagement. Other industry health stakeholders have also been in touch with EPF and their responses will be published over the next few days.
 
We will look very carefully at the detailed replies and will continue our dialogue with industry and other stakeholders to help to ensure the best possible outcomes for patients and their families across Europe.