Post-code lottery in European diabetes care must be addressed, says EFPIA
05.12.22
Published today, the EFPIA WAIT Indicator Survey: Diabetes analysis found that the average time patients have to wait for a new diabetes medicine to be available across EU countries ranges from three months in Sweden to more than four years in Poland, while the EU average continues to be as long as 647 days.
In addition to a post-code lottery in how long patients wait for new diabetes medicines, the report underlines huge disparities in the availability of these medicines across Europe. No country has all 17 products available to people living with diabetes.
For patients and health systems the situation is untenable.
Delays in availability of innovative medicines has a number of interrelated causes rooted in medicines authorisation systems and processes in the EU Member States, such as the speed of pricing and reimbursement processes or insufficient healthcare system readiness. Companies that have spent years developing new treatments for diabetes want those treatments to reach patients as quickly as possible.
EFPIA has taken concrete action and developed a raft of measures that, as a package, can create a step change in access to medicines for patients across Europe, without harming our life-science competitiveness or impinging on member countries’ health competence.
Speaking about the report, EFPIA Director General Nathalie Moll said. “Innovation offers the potential to improve health outcomes and quality of life for people living with diabetes. EFPIA is committed to working with all stakeholders to increase the availability of medicines and decrease the time people living with diabetes must wait. Given the reasons patients wait longer for medicines in different European countries are multifactorial, we believe that only by working together can we deliver faster, more equitable access for patients across Europe.”