The Conference on the Protection of Health brought together experts, regulators and stakeholders to showcase the Council of Europe’s holistic, rights-based and ethical approach to protecting health and to explore how this approach could be reinforced in a changing public-health landscape marked by scientific, technological, environmental and social challenges. The full recording of the conference is now available online.
Watch the recording
Session 3, moderated by the European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines & HealthCare (EDQM) Director Petra Doerr, consisted of a multistakeholder panel of experts providing their perspectives on the quality and safety of medical products and healthcare. The session delivered five key messages:
1. A complementary regulatory ecosystem protects patients. The EDQM and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) play distinct but complementary roles in ensuring the high quality and safety of medicines in Europe and beyond, from lab to bedside.
2. Emerging technologies are an opportunity, if we put ethics and evidence first. AI and digitalisation offer promising opportunities but their use must be guided by ethics and evidence.
3. Human rights are a compass. Even without a stand alone “right to health” in the European Convention on Human Rights, the European Court of Human Rights’ case law defines States’ duties.
4. Medicines shortages are a systemic threat, not a series of isolated incidents. They stem from fragile supply chains, geopolitical and economic pressures and surges in demand and forecasting gaps. They compromise patient safety, clinical outcomes and the resilience of health systems worldwide. We need co-ordinated strategies that anticipate, prevent and mitigate shortages.
5. Falsified and substandard products demand a united front . They impact millions of people and compromise healthcare systems worldwide. Addressing this issue requires the implementation of early detection methods, the disruption of illicit distribution practices and stronger international co-operation.
Read the outcome document of the conference and explore the photo gallery.