COVID-19, Geopolitics, and the Reform of European Pharmaceutical Law: Accelerating Enhanced Medicines Care for Europe?

Abstract

Given the COVID-19 pandemic and intensified geopolitical disruptions, the European Commission, seeking to govern pharmaceutical supply, faced various problems from within and outside the European Union. The authority subsequently submitted far-reaching proposals to revise, amend, and repeal the European Union’s pharmaceutical law. It is against this backdrop that the article examines the different policy impacts on the new pharmaceutical legislation and makes a brief forecast about the extent to which the draft measures, should they come into force as proposed, will contribute to better medicines care in the future. In doing so, the analysis concludes that COVID-19 was a mere accelerator and not the original trigger of most legislative changes. Furthermore, the article argues that, although problems have been identified correctly, some of the approaches to solving them are entrenched in ineffective paths.