Advocacy priorities

The European Union works on countless pieces of legislation and policies that affect the health ecosystem. Some are relevant to most medical disciplines, including hematology—such as the legislation on health data or pharmaceuticals. Others impact our field directly, such as the legislation on substances of human origin (SoHO).

EHA cannot be involved in every file or keep track of every development, so we focus on what members consider most important—our advocacy priorities.

Affordable and equitable access to innovative therapies
Support for hematology research (EU funding and research policies)
Better regulation (oriented towards clinical and patient needs and benefits)

Within these overarching themes, EHA focuses on specific challenges around:

Precision diagnostics
Personalized medicine
Rare hematological diseases
The need for more innovative and less bureaucratic clinical trials
Harmonization of education and training of hematologists

1. Access

Improving affordable and equitable access to innovative therapies in hematology for patients across Europe is EHA’s overriding advocacy priority.

The challenge of improving access has many dimensions, including:

Supply issues, high prices and selective marketing strategies
The lack of innovation in diagnostics and treatments for rare diseases
Regulators’ concerns over evidence gaps
The need for a stronger focus on unmet clinical and patient needs in research and development and in decision making by investors, regulators, and payers
The threat to academic in-house IVD testing, which is crucial for access to precision diagnostics
The implementation of European regulatory frameworks for clinical trials, data sharing, Health Technology Assessment (HTA), and pharmaceuticals

To view a list of the files we work on, or to have a look at our past position papers, visit our policy and advocacy page.

Another example of EHA's work on access is our participation in the ASCERTAIN project (Affordability and Sustainability improvements through new pricing, Cost- Effectiveness and ReimbursemenT models to Appraise INnovative health technologies).

2. Research

Research in hematology is critical to improving our understanding of diseases, clinical practice, and overall patient care.

Over the years, the European Union has developed various programs and strategies to fund and incentivize research in the health field. Examples include the EU4Health funding program, the Cancer Mission in Horizon Europe, and the Europe's Beating Cancer Plan.

EHA joins forces with other medical societies, as well as patient organizations, to advocate for funding increases and to ensure that EU strategies to enhance research quality and output are fit-for-purpose and match the needs of hematology researchers.

On the legislative front, we also advocate for better conditions for research:

Protection and facilitation of academic research
Patient-centric, unmet-needs-based development of medicines
Dedicated regulatory and data frameworks for research in personalized medicine and rare diseases
Easier access to non-identifiable data

3. Better regulation

Improving the regulatory environment for hematology is an important goal of European Affairs. How EU regulations are designed and implemented should match the needs of clinicians and researchers, and enable the development and uptake of innovation for the benefit of patients with hematological diseases.