Yesterday, 16th of September 2020, the President of the European Commission von der Leyen announched the "we need to strengthen our crisis preparedness and management of cross-border health threats."

She also announced a very clear plan:

As a first step, we will propose to reinforce and empowerthe European Medicines Agencyand ECDC – our centre for disease prevention and control.

As a second step, we will build a European BARDA – an agency for biomedical advanced research and development. This new agency will support our capacity and readiness to respond to cross-border threats and emergencies – whether of natural or deliberate origin. We need strategic stockpiling to address supply chain dependencies, notably for pharmaceutical products.

As a third step, it is clearer than ever that we must discuss the question of health competences. And I think this is a noble and urgent task for the Conference on the Future of Europe. And because this was a global crisis we need to learn the global lessons. This is why, along with Prime Minister Conte and the Italian G20 Presidency, I will convene a Global Health Summit next year in Italy. This will show Europeans that our Union is there to protect all."

This launch of the BARDA is a great news, which will position Europe at the first place for the biomedical engineering research and innovation.

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