European Commission - Speech [Check Against Delivery] Speech by Commissioner Várhelyi at Euronews Health Summit 2026 Brussels, 17 March 2026 Ladies and gentlemen, Good afternoon. It's a special privilege to be with you today and also to be on your screens through Euronews. I want to thank Euronews for the health summit initiative, because I don't think since Covid we devote as much attention to health as we should, b...
European Commission - Speech [Check Against Delivery] Speech by Commissioner Várhelyi at Euronews Health Summit 2026 Brussels, 17 March 2026 Ladies and gentlemen, Good afternoon. It's a special privilege to be with you today and also to be on your screens through Euronews. I want to thank Euronews for the health summit initiative, because I don't think since Covid we devote as much attention to health as we should, because health is still the biggest challenge inf front of us. So for me this a moment to share with you what we have accomplished and what you should be expecting from us in the Commission in trying to meet these challenges. Let me start by a definition of what Europe stands for when it comes to health. The European healthcare model is unique in the world, and we should preserve it. Because it is not only a value, but it makes us different and much more reliable for our societies than anywhere else in the world. This is a model where we have always access to the most state-of-the-art treatments and this is a part of the world where this is available for everybody. There is no other place where patients have access to the full range of latest state-of-the-art diagnostics and treatment. But I must also tell you that the signs are not very good. They are pointing that this model is under major challenge. We must face the reality, therefore, that the system is under pressure and we cannot take for granted that it will stay with us. Our population is aging and facing continuously growing burden of chronic diseases. There are less and less people financing our healthcare system, while we need to provide for more and more patients. Moreover, our healthcare system is facing competitiveness challenges both in the field of innovation capacities and safe supply of medicines and medical devices. It was high time therefore to come up with a new comprehensive set of measures – which we presented in the Health Package in December. Together with the pharma reform and the European Health Data Space it will put the European health industry at the forefront of global innovation race and will deliver for the citizens the best health technologies, including digital technologies and especially AI. This is the only way to save the unique European healthcare model. Of course, biotechnology is a central piece of this package, as it holds the promise of transforming healthcare as we know it. So let's look at biotechnology first, as the first pillar of our future European healthcare system. Today, the biotech sector contributes nearly 40 billion euro to the EU economy. And 80 percent of that comes from health biotechnology, which is growing twice as fast as the rest of the economy in Europe. The potential is huge: for our economy and competitiveness but most importantly for our health system. It holds the promise for more precise diagnostics and completely new treatments personalised to each unique need, and creates the opportunity to focus on prevention instead of providing care. To deliver on this promise, we need to support our innovators and bring biotech products from the laboratory to the factory, and to the patients as fast as we can; this is the very purpose of the Biotech Act , as we have proposed it. This Act will simplify the rules to cut down approval timelines for clinical trials – without compromising safety, quality, or ethical standards. For multi-country trials, authorisation times should fall from 106 to 75 days, and for single-country trials from 75 to 47 days - just to put it into perspective, in the US it takes 60 days. The Act will also support high-impact projects that contribute significantly to the EU innovation and biomanufacturing of advanced therapies, and will spur new solutions for areas where there are many unmet needs, like oncology and cardiovascular diseases, the two biggest causes of death in Europe. To encourage investments, we are also boosting the financing environment in the EU, including through an investment pilot together with the EIB Group. This pilot links equity instruments with venture-style debt and will mobilise 10 billion euro into the sector over the next two years while waiting for the next MFF to kick-in. Alongside the Biotech Act, we also proposed to simplify our rules on medical devices . From AI-powered testing to pacemakers and contact lenses, medical devices and in vitro diagnostics have grown into an essential piece of our healthcare systems. This sector is a major European asset: it employs nearly a million people, includes more than 34,000 SMEs, and represents a market worth around 170 billion euro. However, the rules we have are creating unnecessary costs, bottlenecks, uncertainty for companies and major delays for patients. This is why we have proposed simplification measures to make them more fit for purpose without undermining patient safety. The third part of the Health Package is the Safe Hearts Plan . Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death in the EU. We are losing 1.7 million lives annually and it places a huge burden on our health systems, our society and our economy. The Safe Hearts Plan gives us a policy tool at EU level for preventing, detecting and managing these diseases. Because 80% of these lives could be saved; 80% of these diseases are preventable. We will also act on unhealthy diets and address the health effects attributed to ultra processed food. And to give an answer to the chairman, Mounjaro is just a medicine. It takes a personal commitment and effort to fight obesity and diabetes, and once you have diabetes, there is no way back, so the best is to prevent it. Mounjaro might help you do that but it's not going to do it on its own. That is the reason why we are conducting this year studies and designing tools to help citizens to make informed choices about their own nutrition. Appropriate instruments, including financial ones if needed, will support this reformulation. Last December, we also reached a political agreement on the pharmaceutical reform . It goes without saying that this sector is also a major contributor to the EU economy. It represents almost 11 percent of EU exports and 5 percent of the manufacturing sector's economic added value. But the rules governing the sector are already over 20 years old. Our reform provides a much-needed update, which should make it ready for the future. It is designed to transform our regulatory system, so that it can fully support groundbreaking therapies – especially for patients who face unmet medical needs. It gives pharmaceutical companies strong incentives to invest and innovate, while carefully balancing these rewards with essential public health objectives, and keeping these companies innovating, testing, and manufacturing in Europe. We are also embracing the digital transformation , by integrating digital tools and making the shift to electronic product information. We are simplifying procedural aspects and structures even further, making the system more efficient and agile. The pharmaceutical reform will also promote more equitable access to innovative treatments across all EU countries. This means that patients will benefit from medical innovation, regardless of where they live. It will also address some of the issues we see around medicines shortages – such as stronger obligations on companies to ensure security of supply. A recent report shows that pharmacies now spend around 12 hours per week managing shortages, with essential therapies like antibiotics or oncology treatments being more and more affected. The Critical Medicines Act will complement the pharmaceutical reform and reduce dependencies on individual suppliers of critical medicines. It will also further encourage investments in the pharmaceutical sector. It is important to finalise this Act as soon as possible – so that it can start delivering results for patients across the EU. I have promises and high hopes in the Cypriot Presidency that this is going to be a priority for them to deliver. Likewise, we need to ensure that innovation in healthcare translates into real access for patients across all EU countries. The EU Health Technology Assessment will largely contribute to this effort. This is a process that, for the first time, provides an evaluation of how well a new health technology performs compared to existing alternatives, and how cost-effective it is. By strengthening cooperation at the European level, the Health Technology Assessment can help reduce duplication of work across Member States and improve the overall scientific quality of the assessments, and we are also hoping this will seep up the availability of these products for the patients. Trustworthy data is essential to make these assessments reliable. This is where the European Health Data Space will play its role - and we are currently working hard on its implementation. The EHDS is one of the most ambitious initiatives ever proposed in EU health policy. European citizens will be able to access their health data in seconds, whether they are at home or in another EU country. This will transform how people access care, how health systems work together, and how innovation reaches patients. It will make health professionals' lives easier too, as it means less paperwork, less manual typing, and more time to dedicate to their patients. Alongside this, the rules for secondary use of health data will help drive research and innovation, from new medicines discovery to the development of scalable AI in healthcare. Because data is the next raw material of the new healthcare system in Europe. But, of course, data protection must come first. And a strong confidentiality framework will guarantee the data is safe and that people stay in control of how it is used. Ladies and gentlemen, We are living in uncertain times. By simplifying what should be simplified, implementing, enforcing and updating our rules, we move further towards the future we want. A future where innovation thrives and ideas are turned into treatments much faster. Where preventing disease is the norm. And where Europeans can expect only the best from their healthcare systems. If I may conclude with one quote from Lampedusa in Il Gattopardo : “if you want to keep everything unchanged, you have to change everything”. Thank you very much for your attention. SPEECH/26/633
Speech Brief