October 3, 2020

14^th IPOPI EU PID Forum on COVID-19 and Pandemics Management

IPOPI organised its 14^th EU PID Forum on “COVID-19 and Pandemics Management: protecting the most vulnerable” on September 30, 2020. Due to the current pandemic, the Forum was hosted virtually under the patronage of the Member of the European Parliament, Tomislav Sokol (EPP, Croatia) and moderated by Johan Prevot, IPOPI Executive Director.

Four IPOPI National Member Organisations’ (NMOs) representatives took part in the event. Birgit Schlennert (from DSAI, Germany), Isabella Moraswka (from Immunoprotect, Poland), Savvas Savva (Cyprus Primary Association and Friends) and Anneli Larsson (from PIO, Sweden) presented about the challenges their organisations faced in the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic.
IPOPI President, Martine Pergent, provided a short overview of the COVID-19 LEX initiative, a Learning Expedition launched by IPOPI to learn from its NMOs’ specific needs. Pressing issues identified by the LEX were information, communication, cooperation, innovation and, importantly, access to care for all.

Dr Nizar Mahlaoui (Necker Enfants Malades University Hospital and Chair of IPOPI Medical Advisory Panel), Ms Nathalie Bere (European Medicines Agency) and Mr Wolfgang Philipp (European Commission) complemented the medical and the regulatory perspectives and lessons learnt from the pandemic.

The very interesting presentations and speeches, coupled with the responses provided to some of the questions raised during the event, would be the ground for the development of a set of recommendations where the different challenges posed by a pandemic will be described and solutions will be suggested in order to facilitate the approach and management of future pandemics.

Stay tuned for more details on the recommendations and on the report of the event!