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MINI REVIEW article

Front. Public Health

Sec. Public Health Policy

Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1673681

EMA/HMA taskforce on availability of medicines for human and veterinary use - a central hub for the EU network's activities on shortages

Provisionally accepted
Inga AbedInga Abed1*Vanessa BennettVanessa Bennett1Brendan CuddyBrendan Cuddy1Sandra DangSandra Dang1Juan Garcia BurgosJuan Garcia Burgos1Domenico Di GiorgioDomenico Di Giorgio2Maria LamasMaria Lamas3Momir RadulovicMomir Radulovic4Nuno SimõesNuno Simões5Rui Santos IvoRui Santos Ivo5Hugues MalonneHugues Malonne6Monica DiasMonica Dias1
  • 1European Medicines Agency, Amsterdam, Netherlands
  • 2Agenzia Italiana del Farmaco, Rome, Italy
  • 3Agencia Espanola de Medicamentos y Productos Sanitarios, Madrid, Spain
  • 4Javna agencija Republike Slovenije za zdravila in medicinske pripomocke, Ljubljana, Slovenia
  • 5Infarmed Autoridade Nacional do Medicamento e Produtos de Saude IP, Lisbon, Portugal
  • 6Federaal Agentschap voor Geneesmiddelen en Gezondheidsproducten, Brussels, Belgium

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Abstract: Shortages of medicines are a global public health challenge with a significant impact on patient care. While the issue is at the top of the agenda of EU policymakers, regulators and healthcare providers, shortages are a complex problem with many contributing factors requiring multifaceted solutions. This article is a reflection of the work EMA and network of EU regulatory agencies for medicines carried out since 2012, in particular its taskforce, set up in 2016 to provide strategic and structural solutions to tackle shortages in the EU. Since its inception, the taskforce played a key role in spearheading activities related to medicines' shortages. Members of the taskforce supported important initiatives from leading the work on critical medicines to laying the foundation for Regulation (EU) 2022/123 ,which reinforces EMA's role in crisis preparedness and management of medicinal products and medical devices. On 18 December 2024 the taskforce reached the end of its mandate. Its work is now integrated into EMA and HMA's core activities. Future activities such as the implementation of shortage prevention plans will be further defined by measures in the revised pharmaceutical legislation, and the proposed Critical Medicines Act.

Keywords: Shortages, European Union, European Medicines Agency, Medicine shortages, shortages management

Received: 26 Jul 2025; Accepted: 04 Sep 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Abed, Bennett, Cuddy, Dang, Garcia Burgos, Di Giorgio, Lamas, Radulovic, Simões, Santos Ivo, Malonne and Dias. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Inga Abed, European Medicines Agency, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Supplementary Material