European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations

EFPIA priorities

EFPIA priorities include speeding up regulatory approval and reimbursement processes for new medicines, creating a strong science base in Europe, joining forces with key stakeholders on political issues concerning health and addressing safety concerns. EFPIA also includes specialised groups like Vaccines Europe who produce approximately 80% of vaccines used worldwide and European Biopharmaceutical Enterprises harness biotechnology to develop approximately one-fifth of new medicines.

Innovative Medicines Initiative

The Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) is a public-private partnership designed by the European Commission and EFPIA. It is a pan-European collaboration that brings together large biopharmaceutical companies, small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), patient organisations, academia, hospitals and public authorities. The initiative aims to accelerate the discovery and development of better medicines by removing bottlenecks in the drug development process. It focuses on creating better methods and tools to improve and enhance the drug development process, rather than developing specific, new medicines.

Controversy

From 1991 to 1998 Emer Cooke worked for the EFPIA. She became executive director of the European Medicines Agency (EMA), an agency of the European Union (EU) in charge of the evaluation and supervision of medicinal products, in November 2020.

In a session of the Austrian Parliament member of parliament Gerald Hauser on 1 April 2021 publicly criticised a potential conflict of interest, by her allowing the controversial Oxford–AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine to be approved, while having worked for the very same industry in the past as a lobbyist of the EFPIA.