Open Letter to the European Parliament's Committee on
Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI)
Brussels, 12 October 2020
Dear Chair, dear Co-Chairs, dear Members, dear Substitute Members,
On 12 and 13 October 2020 the European Parliament is addressing what requirements and
conditions must be fulfilled to at all cost prevent, and if that fails, to be prepared for a next
pandemic. In the past months, consultations with industry sectors and risk managers have
made clear that hardly any industry sector can survive another pandemic. Worse, all alarm
bells will go off if Covid-19.2 is combined with an outbreak of multiple- or totally-resistant
a teria as referred to i last eek s key i porta t letter of 30 Me ers of the Europea
Parliament (6
October 2020).
Despite dire warnings of then Director General of the WHO
Margaret Chan (14
March 2012)
that a post-antibiotic era is rapidly dawning, the European
Court of Auditors in their report of
15 November 2019
notes that the European Commission
has spent over 1 billion Euro without much consequence. In a recent
presentation
to various
industrial sectors, it is argued that only a Heads of State and Government-level Council or
Committee, advised by an advisory council of scientific experts and civic representatives, can
avoid any repetition of past mistakes. This Committee can be based on the 2013 European
Health Security Committee. This is now advisory and bureaucratic. If upgraded to the highest
political level it will both be top-effective and an appropriate stepping stone to the European
Health Union referred to by European Commission President Ms Ursula von der Leyen.
Under political guidance by Heads of State and Government and with scientific and civic
society advice any potential pandemic can be monitored so that required preventive and
preparedness action, if prevention fails, can immediately be taken. This Committee thus
requires its own substantial budget. The initial proposal by the Commission to commit 9.4 bn
euro for among others such purposes is correctly ambitious and deserves support. However,
while an overview of all other proposals to address pandemics delivers several helpful
elements, none include a total and undisturbed focus on threat and remedy. And none address
the arket failure that pre e ts
the production of new antibiotics. Since the warning
in
1999
(!) of the Scientific Steering Committee of the European Commission to halt
overproduction, overdistribution and overuse of antibiotics for animal growth and disease
prevention and to stop unrequired use in human health, production and use of antibiotics
continued unabated. This also led to such low prices that none of the pharmaceutical
industries can profitably produce new antibiotics. Research and development must thus be
combined in non-profit organisations such as Lygature, already funded by the European
Commission and industry with 196 million euro. For 650 million euro, Lygature can potentially
bring 80 new medicines to market in 10 years (see the
ELF funding model).
Following their production, new antibiotics cannot be sold indiscriminately for a return on
investment as this would once again lead to overuse and resistance. It is thus required to