Delivering health care in enlarged EU

The challenges of delivering health care in the enlarged European Union were discussed last month in Sunny Beach, Bulgaria. The conference was financed by the European Commission and organized by the Bulgarian Faculty of Public Health of the Medical University, with the cooperation of the Ministry of Health and the National Health Insurance Fund. A number of significant topics for Bulgarian health care were discussed, according to the country's Association of Research-based Pharmaceutical Manufacturers (ARPharM).

A working panel on pharmaceutical policy and legislation was held, at which James Copping of the Commission, Svetlana Spasova, Director of National Health Policy at the Bulgarian MoH, and pharmaceutical industry representatives presented their view. They adopted the idea that constructive and good-will-based discussion with the participation of all the parties concerned, is needed to guarantee the building of common health and drugs policy, to find the crossing point between providing Bulgarian patients access to up-to-date and effective medicine treatment and the pharmaceutical industry with the opportunity to work in a predictable market environment and receive reward for innovation, so as to continue the research for new medicines.