The Health Minister called for increased price transparency of medicine, which would consequently lead to improved access of innovative drugs to patients across the EU.
 
Chris Fearne was speaking during the Politico Healthcare Summit about the future of healthcare in Europe.

The meeting in Amsterdam was attended by representatives of the pharmaceutical industry across Europe, patients’ associations, the European Commission, and other stakeholders.

Price transparency was especially important nowadays as innovative drugs were entering the market at prohibitive prices and could consequently undermine the sustainability of the health systems of many countries in the developed world.

Such countries were finding it difficult in procuring some of these medicines and patients were suffering the consequences, Mr Fearne said on Thursday.

During his address, Mr Fearne also referred to the Valletta Group, which was set up during Malta's Council Presidency in May 2017. It consists of 10 EU countries that are cooperating on price transparency and on other related issues in order to make medicines more accessible.

The Group was exploring collaboration with another group, known as Beneluxa, (Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Austria, and Ireland) on horizon scanning.

This kind of scanning provides information on medicinal products that are in developmental stage and are likely to be placed on the market in the following years. It facilitates better planning.