Welcome to EPHA's flagship event on Access to Medicines in 2017!

Programme and Speakers

09:00-09:15 Registration & coffee

09:15-09:45 Welcoming remarks by

- Miroslav Nenkov, Deputy Minister of Health, Bulgaria

- Andrzej Rys, Director responsible for health systems, medical products and innovation, Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety (DG SANTE), European Commission

Introduction by Yannis Natsis, Policy Manager, Universal Access and Affordable, EPHA

09:45-11:15 Transparency in pharmaceuticals: Desirable and/or feasible?

Open discussion moderated by Dr. Deborah Cohen, Investigations Editor, British Medical Journal (BMJ)

- Andrew Hill, Senior Visiting Research Fellow, Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Liverpool University

- Sile Lane, Head, International campaigns and policy, Sense about Science, UK

- Francis Arixkc, Head, Pharmaceutical department, National Institute for Health and Disability Insurance (RIZIV-INAMI), Belgium

- Aldo Golja, Senior policy advisor, Pricing and Reimbursement-Coordinator of the BeNeLuxA Initiative on Pharmaceutical Policy, Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport, The Netherlands

- Boris Azais, Director, Public Policy for Europe and Canada, MSD

11:15-11:30 Coffee break  

11:30-13:00 Drug development: Do the incentives work?      

Open discussion moderated by Dr. Deborah Cohen, Investigations Editor, British Medical Journal (BMJ)

- Dyfryg Hughes, Professor of pharmacoeconomics, School of Healthcare Sciences, Bangor University, Co-Director, Centre for Health Economics & Medicines Evaluation

- Els Torreele, Executive Director, Access Campaign, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)

- Elizabeth Kuiper, Executive Director Public Affairs, European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations, EFPIA

- Marcel Canoy, Advisor, Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM)

13:00-13:45 Lunch

13:45-15:15 The push for accelerated drug approvals: Speed and deregulation over patient safety and robust evidence?

Open discussion moderated by Dr. Deborah Cohen, Investigations Editor, British Medical Journal (BMJ)

- Claudia Wild, Director, Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Health Technology Assessment

- Antonio Addis, Researcher, Department of Epidemiology, Regional Health Service, Rome

- Simon Collins, patient advocate, HIV i-Base

- Beate Wieseler, Head, Department of Drug Assessment, Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG)

- Representative of DG Sante, European Commission (tbc)

15:15-15:30 Coffee break

15:30-17:00 Business strategies, anticompetitive practices & medicines' shortages: What is the way out? 

Open discussion moderated by Dr. Deborah Cohen, Investigations Editor, British Medical Journal (BMJ)

- Marc-Alexander Mahl, President, Medicines for Europe

- Aida Batista, Vice-President, European Association of Hospital Pharmacists (EAHP)

- Fernando Lamata, Senior Expert on Health Care Policies, Impeller of the Association for a Fair Access to Medicines, Spain

- Vlad Voiculescu, Member, Romanian Health Observatory

Join the discussion on Twitter using #GameChangers