The steering group of the Nordic Pharmaceuticals Forum met in Stockholm on May 7th 2024 to discuss Nordic collaboration in the medicines area, as well as future cooperation in the forum.
An important subject during the meeting was adressing the need to clarify additional activities and goals for the Nordic Pharmaceuticals Forum for the years to come. The aim is to maintain the Nordic countries as one of the most integrated regions for medicines in Europe.
There are currently many new initiatives being started both at European and Nordic levels to enhance the security of supply for medicines. The Nordic Pharmaceuticals Forum is involved in the European Commission’s new Critical Medicines Alliance, which will submit recommendations to European decision makers on how security of supply in the EU can be strengthened.
Furthermore, the Nordic Pharmaceuticals Forum will contribute actively with its experience on joint Nordic tendering procedures to the Commission, which is working to identify best practices in tendering procedures. When the Commission decides on best practices, their work will result in a number of recommendations for its member countries.
The Nordic Pharmaceuticals Forum also welcomes the announcement from Nordic health ministers about closer collaboration to ensure supplies of antibiotics. One of the measures taken will be to examine whether the Nordic countries can have joint procurements of antibiotics.
The Nordic Pharmaceuticals Forum views a stronger collaboration in this area very positively. The forum has already previous experience with joint Nordic procurements of antibiotics. Most recently, the Nordic Pharmaceuticals Forum published a joint tendering procedure between Denmark, Norway and Iceland, in which the countries make use of specific criteria for the prevention of antibiotic resistance. The Nordic Pharmaceuticals Forum is ready to share its knowledge and experience when discussing increased Nordic cooperating on antibiotics procurements.
The Nordic Pharmaceuticals Forum is looking forward to continuing its constructive collaboration with all relevant stakeholders, and to strengthen the security of supply and the quality of medicines in the Nordics and in Europe.
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