Cypriots — who hold the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union until the end of June — tested the waters on what countries aim to achieve through the Commission’s proposed Biotech Act — and, unsurprisingly, an additional year of monopoly rights for certain treatments divided countries.
In the meantime, EU health chief, Várhelyi, said this is the way to have access to new therapies.
The Commission’s proposed additional year of protection — known as Supplementary Protection Certificates — would be granted for treatments that contain a new active substance, have a different mechanism of action from existing treatments, have conducted clinical trials in more than two EU countries and carry out at least one manufacturing step — such as packaging or quality testing — in the EU.
The measure is intended to encourage biotech companies to invest, manufacture and conduct research in Europe.
“We support the idea of incentivising technology in Europe and we support the idea to extend the protection certification system,” Spain’s health minister, Mónica García Gómez, told fellow ministers.
