Making the most of EU advance purchases of medicines

When consumers fall sick during a pandemic, it is crucial they get timely and affordable access to life-saving medicines. Advance purchases of pharmaceuticals by the European Union can play an important role in keeping people alive. 

To make the most of future initiatives, BEUC has a set of recommendations:

• Contracts must describe in detail the actions that companies must take to reach at-scale production capacity. There should be strong contractual clauses to ensure compliance with delivery schedules.

• As a general rule, advance payments to support R&D and to ramp-up production capacity should be made conditional on sharing intellectual property rights and know-how. This is essential to ensure that there is enough production to meet global demand during a public health crisis.

• Pharma companies should be responsible for covering indemnification costs related to injuries caused by their products to consumers, and not Member States.

• Transparency should be the rule in Advance Purchase Agreements negotiation frameworks. Any proposed exception should be well-justified and assessed by an independent committee.

• Contracts must ensure that if companies fail to bring the product to the market, the EU gets back a fair share of the advance payment.