Primăvara este în aer în timp ce EAPM se pregătește pentru conferința președinției UE

It is a hopeful time of year for the European Alliance for Personalised Medicine (EAPM) as spring finally unveils itself across the EU and  coronavirus vaccinations proceed apace, scrie directorul executiv al EAPM Dr. Denis Horgan.

New newsletter, 9^th Conferința președinției UE

The latest EAPM newsletter is now available for your attention, and it has much in there to grab your attention, such as a link to a lung cancer factsheet, news of the Europe Beating Cancer Plan, information and a link concerning tumour agnostics, and a link to the recent EAPM report on its serology round table. Clic aici to access the newsletter.

But, most importantly, on 8 March, EAPM will be hosting its 9^th EU Presidency Conference. Naturally online, the conference will run from 9-16h, and is entitled ‘Forward together with innovation: The why, what and how of tackling the Implementation Gap for health care in the EU Portuguese Presidency’.

Many of the points raised in this update and in the newsletter will be discussed in the upcoming conference, which will feature a wide range of keynote speakers from across the EU, including Christine Chomienne, vice chairwoman of the Mission Board Cancer at the European Commission, Ortwin Schulte, Health Attaché, Permanent Representation of Germany to the EU, Ceri Thompson, Deputy Head of Unit DG CNECT H3: eHealth, Well- being and Ageing , Gilad Vainer, Molecular Pathologist, Hadassah Medical Center, Israel  and Stephen Hall, regional director, Precision Oncology (CDx), Oncology Region Europe, Novartis.

Registration is still very much open, clic aici a înregistra, și clic aici pentru ordinea de zi.

Commission to propose digital green pass for travel

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Comisia Europeană a anunțat că va prezenta o propunere legislativă pentru un Green Green Pass pe 17 martie. Certificatul va conține dovada că o persoană a fost vaccinată, rezultatele testelor pentru cei care încă nu au putut primi un vaccin și pot lua în considerare și recuperarea de la COVID-19. Digital Green Pass are scopul de a permite deplasarea în siguranță a persoanelor în Uniunea Europeană sau mai departe.

Asked about the proposal, European Commission spokesperson Christian Wiegand said that if the passes were to be in place by the summer, member states would need to move quickly in their preparations and rollout. He said that countries had already agreed on basic data requirements. The European Commission would take a co-ordinating role ensuring high security standards and helping to connect different national health services.

EU to speed approval of variant-modified coronavirus vaccines

The European Union will fast track approvals of coronavirus vaccines adapted to combat mutations, Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides has said.  “We have now decided that a vaccine that has been improved by the manufacturer on the basis of the previous vaccine to combat new mutations no longer has to go through the entire approval process. So it will be faster to have suitable vaccines available without compromising on safety.”

The European Commission has come under fire from EU member states over delays to deliveries of vaccines which has seen the bloc lag behind countries such as Britain, a former member, and the United States. Kyriakides is a member of a new task force, led by Industry Commissioner Thierry Breton, to eliminate bottlenecks in production plants and adjust output to new 
variante.

EU leaders face coronavirus ‘fatigue’

Despite the slow vaccine rollout in Europe, delayed by almost a month compared to former member the UK, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the bloc still aims to inoculate 70% of all adults — around 255 million people — by September.

“This is a goal that we are confident we will reach,” she said.

Border checks remain a sore point. Divisions among EU member countries, including Germany, Austria, Belgium and the Czech Republic, on restrictions to stave off transmission has again raised the specter of travel delays and long traffic backups in a bloc that prides itself on being a seamless market. Michel told reporters that “non-essential travel may still need to be restricted, but measures should be proportionate.”

The leaders were also updated on the movement of fast-spreading new variants of the virus within Europe, with the so-called U.K variant now present in 26 member countries. The variant first detected in South Africa has been identified in 14, while the Brazilian type is known to be in seven. This means that restrictions could well continue through coming months.  “There is a growing COVID fatigue among our citizens. It has been a very trying year, but we should not let up now,” said von der Leyen.

Choosing better lung cancer treatments with machine learning

Researchers say that machine learning could help guide health-care workers’ treatment decisions for lung cancer patients after developing a model that is 71% more accurate at predicting survival expectancy of patients. A team of Penn State Great Valley researchers conducted a study in which they developed a deep learning model that is more than 71% accurate in predicting survival expectancy of lung cancer patients, which is significantly better than traditional machine learning models that the team tested which have around a 61% accuracy rate. Deep learning is a type of machine learning that is based on artificial neural networks, which are generally modelled on how the human brain’s own neural network  functions. 

The team say that the information on a patient’s survival expectancy could help guide doctors and caregivers in making better decisions on using medicines, allocating resources, and determining the intensity of care for patients. The machine learning model is able to analyse vast amounts of data and can include information such as types of cancer, tumour size, the speed of tumour growth, and demographic data.

Next few weeks ‘difficult’ – Michel

EU leaders have discussed how to accelerate the production and rollout of vaccines, amid fears over more transmissible mutations triggering a new surge in cases across the bloc."We know that the next few weeks will continue to be difficult as far as vaccinations are concerned," said 

Președinte al Consiliului European Charles Michel. “But we do have the means, we have the resources, we have the capability to succeed over the next few months," he added. More than 50 million doses have so far been delivered to EU member states, which have administered 29 million jabs (almost 7% of the bloc's population), according to the European Commission.

The EU vaccine strategy has come under fire over the slow pace of immunization programmes in member states, compared to the UK, the US, or Israel. Brussels aims to vaccinate at least 70% of its adult population by the end of September but has struggled to receive the doses agreed with 
companii farmaceutice. 

Following recent delivery delays, EU leaders stressed that predictability was crucial to organising national inoculation programmes, urging vaccine-developers to respect contractual deadlines.

Protecting European consumers: Safety Gate efficiently helps take  dangerous COVID-19 products off the market

The European Commission published its annual report on the Safety Gate, which is the EU rapid alert system helping to take dangerous non-food  products off the market. The report shows that the number of actions taken by authorities following an alert is growing year by year, reaching a new record number of 5,377, compared to 4,477 in 2019.9% of all alerts raised in 2020 concerned products related to COVID-19, mostly masks meant to protect but failing to do so. Other examples for dangerous COVID-19 related products notified in the Safety Gate are disinfectants containing toxic chemicals, such as methanol that can lead to blindness or even death if swallowed, or UV sanitizers that exposed users to strong radiation causing skin irritations.

And that is everything from EAPM at the start of the week – remember EAPM’s EU Presidency Conference on 8 March, click aici to register, and click aici for the agenda. Stay safe, stay well, see you later in the week.

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