Dr. Maggie De Block:

Yes, we had some cases like that where pharmaceutical firms contacted families and made a whole campaign in the journals, on television, did declarations and so on to put on pressure for reimbursement of their medications. That is of course very sad for the families they are using and it is a big pressure, and we saw it also in the Netherlands for the minister. We should not let the firms decide for us but we should co-operate with them. That is what we did with the pharmaceutical pact by being together every month. Every time, we saw how the implementation of the pact went because all we put in it was done and in full transparency.

The problem with the negotiations for the vaccines was, first of all, there were negotiations and there were pipelines but there was little evidence it was the right vaccine at that moment. It was also very new for the Commission to do that work. Now that it has done it, it is the right moment to say it must also look to put the countries together and to speed up the procedures that are possible, because then the pharmaceutical firms have only one partner to negotiate with. Then all the patients will have access at the same time. Currently, it takes perhaps two years longer in one country than in another, which is the worst case, and other countries are not able to pay for it. There are patients who have to move from their country to another, which is of course almost impossible for sick patients. I do not think it is the moment to ring the bell in the European Commission. I am not a member of the European Parliament but I could mobilise the ones I know from my political group, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, ALDE. I also have had good relations with the European Commissioner, Ms Kyriakides, of Cyprus. I think she would be sensitive to that too.