The off-patent medicines industry has called on the European Commission to integrate security of supply considerations into the EU Transparency Directive and the Public Procurement Directive to protect access to essential medicines, which it says is under threat from a combination of increasing inflation and potential further price cuts across EU member states. The former directive governs medicines pricing and reimbursement decisions while the latter relates to medicine tendering.
Several EU countries are currently considering additional cost containment measures for off-patent medicines, which could limit access to these drugs,...