The EU has published an action plan that is intended to upgrade the bloc’s intellectual property framework while ensuring that goods such as medicines and vaccines are made as widely available as possible. The initiative is part of wide-ranging plans to support member states’ recovery from the pandemic crisis and help ensure the EU’s resilience to future health threats.

The EU pharmaceutical strategy published on 25 November will be the first step in a “complete overhaul” of the medicines legislative framework to be proposed in about two years’ time, says the European Commission.

A new legislative proposal is seeking to empower the European Medicines Agency in tracking potential shortages of drugs and medical devices and enable the agency to play a greater role in coordinating clinical trials and vaccine research during health emergencies.