EU matchmaking event mobilises the development and production of COVID-19 therapeutics
On the 12 and 13 July, the European Commission hosted a pan-European matchmaking event to upscale the development and production of COVID-19 therapeutics. The event brought together over 250 participants from the therapeutics value chain from 25 Member States and other countries.
The event was organised by the Commission’s Task Force for industrial scale-up of COVID-19 vaccines and therapeutics in cooperation with the ECCP, the Council of European BioRegions (CEBR) and the European Clusters Alliance (ECA).
The matchmaking event aimed to:
- enhance the participation of companies in EU value chains
- connect organisations and companies
- help in production planning
The event was kicked off by speeches from Commissioners Thierry Breton and Stella Kyriakides.
Commissioner Kyriakides, responsible for Health and Food Safety, said: “The EU is making good progress on vaccination with 50% of adults now fully vaccinated. But vaccines are not our only response to COVID-19. With the spread of variants and the resurgence of cases across the EU in recent weeks, the development of therapeutics is more necessary than ever. I am encouraging companies to step forward and join forces to develop and produce COVID-19 therapeutics in the EU. Through our EU Therapeutics Strategy, we have already identified the first five most promising therapeutics with the target to authorise three new treatments by October 2021. With the support of events such as the one today, we may soon have many more."
Commissioner Breton, responsible for the Internal Market said: “We have reached a milestone in the EU in our fight against the pandemic: Europe has now produced and delivered enough doses to vaccinate 70% of our adult population. The EU has also become the world’s biggest producer of mRNA vaccines. This would not have been possible without new partnerships across the industrial ecosystem. We now want to forge new collaborations to ensure that Europe also leads the way in developing new life-saving COVID-19 treatments.”
Building on the list of the five promising candidate therapeutics, the event is key to the Commission’s strategy on COVID-19 therapeutics and focused on speeding up the production of new and repurposed medicines.
The first matchmaking event was held successfully in March 2021 and focused on mobilising COVID-19 vaccine producers in the whole value chain.
More information about the event is available on the event’s website.
