On 11 December 2015, PACT partners gathered at the Information Centre of the European Parliament in Brussels for the second Partners’ Assembly of the Patient Access Partnership since its inception in 2014.

The meeting aimed to discuss the activities and progress made by PACT in 2015, and the plans for 2016 and beyond.

It also took place the appointment of the new Steering Committee members, for the period 2016-2017. As established in the Statutes, the Partnership Assembly could appoint at least 5 members to the Steering committee, excluding the Chairperson and the Secretary-General.
Partners proposed their candidates, per stakeholder category, and the following members were appointed for the next two-year period:

–    Anders Olauson, EPF and Stanimir Hasurdjiev, NPO on behalf of the Patients organizations (having reserved seats as founding members)
–    Birgit Beger, CPME on behalf of the Healthcare professionals
–    Andrey Kovatchev on behalf of the MEP Interest Group on Access to Healthcare
–    Lilana Keith from PICUM and prof. Kyriakos Souliotis from the University of Peloponnese on behalf of “Other healthcare partners” category.
–    On behalf of the Industry associations, it was agreed that EFPIA, EGA and MedTech Europe will attend and contribute to the SC on an equal representation rotating basis by their representatives, respectively Elizabeth Kuiper, Adrian van den Hoven and Tanja Valentin.

Following the very successful first year of PACT, the partners agreed on even more ambitious and tangible Work plan for 2016 building on the core objective of the Partnership to identify key hurdles in access to healthcare and develop innovative and sustainable solutions for addressing inequalities in access for patients in EU 28.

The discussion during the meeting was quite fruitful and productive with many interesting ideas for new funding options as well as new initiatives in 2016 which will build on the Riga roadmap aiming to have a huge impact at EU level.