• Industry leaders from the generic, biosimilar and value added medicines industries discuss challenges and opportunities in ensuring sustainable, worldwide patient access to pharmaceuticals. • Medicines for Europe and the International Generic and Biosimilar Medicines Association (IGBA) join forces to tackle challenges such as market sustainability, medicines shortages, and international regulatory cooperation. • Opportunities can be pursued with strong stakeholder collaboration for a sustainable industry. These include the introduction of an EU SPC manufacturing waiver, and ensuring that generic, biosimilar and value added medicines can play their role in providing better access for better health. The joint 24th Medicines for Europe and 21st IGBA Annual Conference began today with key industry leaders coming together in Budapest, Hungary, to discuss the challenges and opportunities for the global generic, biosimilar and value added medicines industries. Challenges related to industry sustainability were debated with key experts, who shared perspectives on topics such as medicines shortages, use of data, Brexit, international regulatory cooperation and the EU Falsified Medicines Directive (FMD). European industry leaders outlined the period of intense preparations to ensure compliance by the early 2019-milestones for FMD and Brexit. The conference also underlined the exciting opportunities ahead for the industry. Having welcomed the European Commission legislative proposal for an EU SPC manufacturing waiver in May this year, Medicines for Europe is committed to supporting such industrial policy initiatives which can strengthen the European industrial base, increasing investments in R&D for biosimilar medicines, boosting EU competitiveness, and delivering faster access to medicines for patients. Marc Alexander Mahl, President of Medicines for Europe, commented that “Medicines for Europe is committed to engaging with stakeholders and decision makers to improve patient access. In fact, to showcase our strong manufacturing footprint in Europe, Medicines for Europe has decided to launch an ‘Industry manufacturing week’, in which member companies will open production plants across Europe for stakeholders. We are leading suppliers of medicines for European patients and we want to engage with local communities to show that we are an integral part of the health ecosystem. “ David Gaugh, Chair of IGBA and Senior Vice President at the Association for Accessible Medicines, USA, commented that “the global perspective of the industry is crucial; key objectives such as international regulatory harmonisation and global collaboration to ensure the uptake of generic, biosimilar and value-added medicines can bring real benefits to patients – access and affordability are objectives we all share, right across the globe.” Medicines for Europe and The International Generic and Biosimilar Medicines Association (IGBA) 2018. június 14.