Azernews.Az

By Alimat Aliyeva

Access to medicines in Europe is worsening, with the average waiting time for new drugs now reaching 532 days, AzerNEWS reports.

This was stated by Nathalie Moll, Director General of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA), in an interview with the Financial Times (FT).

“The system for accessing medicines in Europe is broken,” she said, adding that delays and unequal access to treatments continue to increase across the European Union.

Moll also noted that the EU has been losing ground in attracting pharmaceutical investment. According to her, spending on medicines in European countries amounts to only about 1% of GDP, compared to 1.8% in China and around 2% in the United States.

She warned that pharmaceutical companies are increasingly likely to redirect investments to the U.S. unless Europe takes decisive steps to “fix the system” and improve the speed of drug approvals and market access.

An additional concern raised by industry analysts is that these long approval times not only delay patient access to innovative treatments but may also widen the gap between Western Europe and other regions in terms of medical innovation and healthcare competitiveness.