The process for bringing new medicines onto the market should be simplified, the health minister told a European Council meeting on Tuesday.

Addressing a meeting of health ministers, Minister Jo Etienne Abela stressed that red tape for licensing new medicines should be reduced, warning Europe’s preparedness for the future would be affected without such a move,

Responding to former Italian prime minister Mario Draghi’s Future of European Competitiveness report – promoting European innovation in response to slow growth – Abela said medicine was entering a “new era” as treatments became more complex.

Calling for greater European cooperation, the health minister said, “this new era of personalised medicine requires a single European front and not competition between large and small states.”

“Only in this way can we achieve our desired goals together, namely that of a policy aimed at innovation across the EU”, he said.

Other topics up for discussion during the council meeting included tobacco use, organ donation and the conclusions on strengthening cardiovascular health.

Last year, Malta was found to have the lowest access to new medicines across the EU, with new drugs to treat cancer particularly scarce.

A report pharmaceutical companies and healthcare workers found that out of the 168 pharmaceuticals to have received marketing authorisation from the European Commission (EC), only 10 were available in Malta by January of that year.

Of these, only four were freely available to all patients using the public health service while six were accessible without cost on a case-by-case basis, the report said.

Speaking to Times of Malta last year, Malta Medicines Authority Anthony Serracino-Inglott said that while the authority was “very much aware” of the issue, it was believed to be due to the country’s small size.

Calling for the EC to oblige manufacturers to make medicines available to small states, Serracino-Inglott said the authority expected to "move away from a completely free trade model” in time, however.