Today at The European Parliament in Strasbourg, Maria da Graça Carvalho participated in the debate of the high-level conference on Horizon 2020 and the Future of European Research organised by the European Alliance for Personalised Medicine EAPM.
During the event, Prof Helmut Brand, co-chair of the European Alliance for Personalised Medicine EAPM said that Europe's citizens 'need to benefit from better coordination of research with all stakeholders involved, including a cross-section of legislators in the European Union'.
David Byrne, former EU Commissioner for Health added: 'It is incumbent upon the EU to ensure that there is a sufficient budget allocation, simplification of access to funding and funding programmes that respond to the needs of the stakeholders.'
Petru Luhan MEP said it was not just a one-way street because stakeholders (patients, researchers, health-care planners, medical professionals and industry) need to get together and come up with innovative ideas and constructive ways to utilise the 78 billion euro put aside under the European Union's Horizon 2020 plans.
At the conference, Marian Harkin MEP said: 'I'm delighted that so many stakeholders have made the long trip to Strasbourg to convey their priorities to the politicians, Commission officials and Member State representatives.'
Alojz Peterle MEP, the first president of the independent Slovenia, said: "Research is the key. I agree with Petru Luhan that more stakeholder-led research is clearly necessary because personalised medicine promises a wealth of new possibilities for patients in Europe, by making healthcare delivery as tailored to the individual as their fingerprints."
Maria da Graça Carvalho added that while the EAPM objective of ensuring that the 'right prevention and treatment to the right patient at the right time is an ambitious agenda, it is one that Horizon 2020 can support. This will help transform healthcare and the quality of life of Europeans, by ensuring that European medicine is at the forefront of putting science at the service of citizens.'
Mary Baker, president of the European Brain Council, stated that 'a key condition to restore the European leadership in healthcare is to join forces in the private public sectors, in order to foster the development of innovative approaches for preventing, treating, and curing diseases'. Europe has taken the lead in these public-private partnerships for health through the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI), a flagship of the current research framework programme.
About EAPM
The European Alliance for Personalised Medicine brings together Europe's leading healthcare experts and patient advocates to improve patient care by accelerating the development, delivery and uptake of personalised medicine and diagnostics.
It is calling for the European Commission, the European Parliament and EU member states to help improve the regulatory environment so that patients can have early access to personalised medicine, and so that research is boosted.