Cooperation

The Biomedical Alliance is committed to working with other stakeholders in the health and research sectors to achieve common objectives and to exchange knowledge.

We believe that stakeholders in the health and research fields can achieve more when they cooperate as we all have a clear interest in fostering research and innovation and improving healthcare.

Cooperation is limited to those areas where parties have a clear common interest and objectives do not contradict one another. The BioMed Alliance cooperates and interacts with many actors in the EU policy field, some examples are listed below.

group of flags of the European Union waving in the wind

EU Institutions

The BioMed Alliance is in contact with policy makers and experts in different institutions to provide expert advice and to stay updated on EU affairs. As a stakeholder in the health and research policy field, we participate in different events and meetings and invite policy makers to our public meetings. In addition, we reply to public consultations and respond to calls.

European Commission Medical Devices Coordination Group

The BioMed Alliance is a registered stakeholder and participates in meetings of different working groups of the Medical Device Coordination Group (MDCG). This group brings together competent authorities and aims to facilitate a harmonised implementation of the EU medical device regulations in member states. Through the stakeholder meetings and consultations, the BioMed Alliance provides feedback on the implementation of the Medical Devices Regulation and In Vitro Diagnostics Regulation. Published MDCG Guidance documents can be found here.

EMA

The BioMed Alliance is officially registered as an EMA Stakeholder. By registering as a stakeholder, the BioMed Alliance can easily be identified for consultation on relevant issues, is kept up to date on events, receives communications and is informed on EMA consultations.

HERA

The European Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA) has recently been established within the European Commission to prevent, detect, and rapidly respond to health emergencies. The BioMed Alliance has been selected as a member of the The Civil Society Forum, which helps to ensure that HERA receives regular input on the views of the civil society stakeholders.

UEMS-EACCME

The BioMed Alliance has signed a memorandum of understanding with the European Union of Medical Specialists (UEMS) to ensure continued dialogue between our organisations. We are particularly in close contact with the European Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (EACCME) to discuss issues around the accreditation of CME activities and to share the experiences and views of medical societies.

EU Health Coalition

The EU Health Coalition is a multi-stakeholder initiative looking at how to map the future of healthcare in Europe, make the most of innovation, the role of the European Union in addressing these challenges and critically, cooperate between different sectors to deliver the best outcomes for patients in Europe.

Within the EU Health Coalition, a dedicated Research and Innovation policy group is co-led by BioMed Alliance. The policy group has proposed recommendations with the aim to enhance the health research landscape in Europe. The proposed recommendations call for an increased EU budget for health research, setting-up a cross-sectorial health research Public Private Partnership and better coordination and support for health research.

The next EU Health Summit taking place on 15 November in the Flemish Parliament will provide an excellent occasion to get together with a broad range of health stakeholders and policy makers to discuss the future of health in the EU. More information is available here.

Coalition on Reducing Bureaucracy in Clinical Trials

The BioMed Alliance is an active member of the stakeholder coalition on reducing bureaucracy in clinical trials, which aims to address the unnecessary complexity in clinical trials to facilitate research. The Coalition produced a statement ‘Reducing bureaucracy in clinical trials: now is the time‘ which was jointly produced by medical societies and patient advocates. The work within the coalition is ongoing, and a number of Coalition Recommendations has been drafted and a series of roundtables was organised to gather additional input from policy makers and external stakeholders. More information on the coalition is available on its website here.

EPF

The European Patient Forum (EPF) is an umbrella organisation that represents patient groups across Europe in different disease groups. We cooperate with them on topics of mutual interest to get the valuable input of patient representatives. EPF is also a member of our CME Experts Committee.

EIT Health

The European Institute of Innovation and Technology is made up of various knowledge and innovation communities that each focus on a different sector. EIT Health focuses on health and ageing and aims to facilitate cooperation and create a supportive environment for innovation in health. BioMed Alliance signed a memorandum of understanding with EIT Health to facilitate cooperation on a range of activities that are of relevance to our members.

Industry organisations

BioMed Alliance does not take any direct funding from industry, but we do exchange information and cooperate where interests overlap with trade organisations like MedTech Europe, EFPIA, COCIR, EUCOPE, Digital Europe and others.