Archives

A week among the greatest of mountains and minds: My experience at the European Health Forum Gastein

Janneke van Oirschot, HAI’s AI & Health Project coordinator took part in the Young Forum Gastein Scholarship programme of this year’s European Health Forum Gastein (EHFG). Below she shares some…

Addressing medicines shortages in the European Union

Shortages of medicines are increasingly a matter of great concern in the European Union (EU) and are perceived as a “severe cross-border threat” by a number of national and EU…

Enabling Access to Medical Innovations for all

Wemos, Health Action International (HAI), Innovarte and Knowledge Ecology International (KEI) are happy and proud to announce that they are forming a consortium for the next four years to improve…

Health for all requires a healthy planet

There is no health without a healthy planet – that’s why we joined the Netherlands’ largest-ever climate march last Sunday. Together with over 50 civil society organisations and hospitals, Health…

15 November 2023

Response to European Consultation on Intellectual Property

Consultation Response | August 2023 | Download PDF The European Commission proposal as contained in COM (2023)224[1] and accompanying documents is an overdue step forward towards a more nuanced balanced…

AI can threaten health equity for marginalised populations: the EU must act now

AI and algorithmic decision tools in healthcare may create gaping digital divides and threaten health equities, placing marginalised groups at particular risk. Hannah van Kolfschooten, Pin Lean Lau, and Janneke…

Promoting Health Rights and Access to Medicines in Europe

Brochure | April 2023 | Download PDF Medicines are crucial for improving our health and well-being. But the price of many new and patented medicines in Europe is growing higher…

The TRIPS Agreement Laid Bare

Policy Paper | October 2022 | Download PDF This policy paper that provides an account of the history of the TRIPS agreement and TRIPS flexibilities, their evolution, and the lessons…

19 October 2022

Health protection is non-negotiable in the AI Act negotiations

A health-centric approach to the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Act is essential for the protection of health and fundamental rights of European citizens, write Hannah van Kolfschooten and Janneke van Oirschot. …

5 September 2022

Response to European Consultation on Compulsory Licensing

Consultation Response | May 2022 | Download PDF Health Action International (HAI) welcomes the step taken by the European Commission towards an enhanced use of Compulsory Licenses (CL) in European…

Call for medical journals to support clinical trial transparency

Six health groups, including Health Action International and TranspariMED, today call on medical journals to help patients, doctors and scientists to rapidly access data from recently completed clinical trials. In…

17 January 2022

Working with the European Parliament

2021 has been another big year for the work of Health Action International (HAI) at the European Parliament. As co-hosts of the European Parliament Working Group on Access to Medicines…

15 December 2021

Talking Medicine Pricing

We recently published the report Medicine Pricing and Access in Europe and Beyond in which we examine issues related to medicine pricing and some of the actions already taken to address…

30 November 2021

COVID-19: European Commission gives lacklustre response to legitimate civil society concerns

Along with over 200 other civil society organisations, on 29th June we wrote to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. In our letter, we requested that the European Union…

Missing clinical trial data in Europe

Report | July 2021 | Download PDF NOTE: A follow-up to this report was published on 3 October 2022 The report, Missing clinical trial data in Europe: Assessing and comparing…

Clinical Trial Data and the Risk of Bias

In 2018, HAI co-funded a study investigating the risk of bias in cancer drug trials submitted to the European Medicines Agency (EMA) to inform the approval of the drugs for public use (Naci…

Getting Hack to Reality

In Autumn 2020, we promised we’d update you on the realisation of the winning idea of the Great Health Hack. But first a quick reminder of where we left off….

MEPs can deliver strong message to Commission on TRIPS waiver

Statement | 7 June 2021 | AMSTERDAM—On Wednesday 9th June, the European Parliament has the opportunity to send a strong message to their domestic constituencies, the European Commission, and the…

HAI Statement on the Oslo Medicines Initiative

Statement | 31 March | Download PDF Delivered at the World Health Organization Virtual Consultation with Non-State Actors, 31 March 2021 Health Action International (HAI) welcomes the Oslo Medicine initiative…

Access to Medicines in Europe

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to wreak havoc across health systems in the Global North and South alike. It has also shone a light on the issue of access to medicines…

10 February 2021

Transparency, Accountability and Access to Medicines: European Projects 2021

Brochure | February 2021 | Download PDF The COVID-19 pandemic, that continues to wreak havoc across health systems in the Global North and South alike, has shone a light on…

10 February 2021

Joint HTA Assessment in Europe: Progress in 2020

Discussion Paper | December 2020 | Download PDF As 2019 drew to close, Health Action International (HAI), like many of its peers, looked back on a year of minimal progress…

18 December 2020

Cross-country Cooperation Schemes: A fair-weather solution to the issue of access to medicines in Europe?

Report | December 2020 | Download PDF Over the past two decades, rising medicine prices have become an increasingly critical threat to the economic sustainability of health systems across the…

14 December 2020

There is no UHC without Universal Medicines Coverage

Written by HAI Executive Director Dr Tim Reed This has been adapted from a blog previously published on this website to mark Universal Health Coverage (UHC) Day 2020. Very many…

11 December 2020

Health Action International Statement on the European Commission Pharmaceutical Strategy

Statement | 25 November 2020 AMSTERDAM— The long-awaited European Commission Pharmaceutical Strategy and the Intellectual Property Action Plan, to which Health Action International (HAI) contributed through the public consultation phase,…

25 November 2020

HAI’s Great Health Hack Delivers Great Ideas for Access to Meds

On a less than typical day in October, Health Action International, in partnership with Wemos and Medicines Law & Policy, hosted the Great Health Hack—a Diplohack bringing together people from…

24 November 2020

Making Medicines Authorisation Procedures Work for Patients

Policy Recommendations | 8 October | Download PDF A study recently published in The Milbank Quarterly, Approval of cancer drugs with uncertain therapeutic value: a comparison of regulatory outcomes in…

Europe Faces a Critical Time of Key Medicine Shortages Amidst a Pandemic

Medicine shortages constitute a cross-border health threat that can have serious consequences for the lives and wellbeing of patients across Europe. Although shortages in countries like the Netherlands are nothing…

What do the next five years have in store for the European Medicines Agency?

Without resorting to cliché, it has been an unexpected and unprecedented year for the European Medicines Agency (EMA), as well as the rest of the world. At the beginning of…

30 September 2020

HAI Statement on Improving Access to Insulin

Statement | 25 September 2020 | Download PDF Following a meeting of the World Health Organization (WHO), Insulin and associated devices: Access for Everybody, our Addressing the Challenge and Constraints…

25 September 2020