Tackling drug shortages in Europe - what is the best way forward?

Dr. Peter Liese has been a member of the European Parliament since 1994. He is a Member and the EPP coordinator in the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI).

Before joining the European Parliament for the region South Westphalia, Dr. Peter Liese completed his medical studies in Marburg, Aachen and Bonn and obtained a Doctorate (magna cum laude) at the human genetic institute of the University of Bonn. Following his studies, Dr. Liese practiced as a doctor in Guatemala, a ward physician in the children’s hospital in Paderborn and was a physician in a group practice from 1994 until 2002.

Dr. Hans-Georg Feldmeier is currently CEO of Dermapharm SE, a leading German Pharmaceutical company. Its business focusses on branded health care products, herbal extracts and parallel import. In addition, he is Managing Director of several Dermapharm subsidiaries. Hans has been Managing Director of Mibe GmbH Arzneimittel, the main factory of Dermapharm Group, from 2003 to 2009. Before this, he worked for 14 years for Berlin-Chemie AG / Menarini Group. Hans Feldmeier studied pharmacy at the University of Greifswald and received his doctorate from the Humboldt University of Berlin in 1991. He is Board Member of the German Pharmaceutical Industry Association (BPI).

Dirk Van den Steen is an economist working at DG SANTE in unit B4 (Medical products: quality, safety, innovation), which deals among other with shortages of medicinal products.  Prior to joining the Commission in 2009, Dirk worked at the actuarial department of the Belgian public payer organisation RIZIV/INAMI dealing with the database architecture of hospital billing/clinical information, the Belgian Healthcare Knowledge Centre (KCE) as a health economist involved with health technology assessment (HTA) and with IMS Health (now called IQVIA) as a consultant in pharmaco-economic modelling for the industry. At the European Commission in the past Dirk has been involved in the development of the Cross-border Healthcare Directive, notably working on the mutual recognition of cross-border prescriptions as well as the assessment of national health systems. Also, in recent years Dirk worked at the Commission’s Competition DG with a focus on antitrust enforcement in the domain of pharmaceuticals, devices and health services.

Dr. Sibylle Steiner is the Head of Division for Medical, Pharmaceuticals and other Prescribed Services, National Association of SHI-Physicians at KBV. She joined KBV in 2008 as the Head of Department of Pharmaceuticals, National Association of SHI-Physicians. Before joining KBV, Dr. Steiner was a physician herself at the Surgical Department of the City Hospital Munich-Schwabing, followed by consulting roles at the University of Cologne and the IGES Institute. Furthermore, Dr. Steiner pursued a career in the private sector, working for Merck, Pfizer and the HealthEcon AG.

Dr. Steiner completed her medical studies in Regensburg and Munich and holds a Master in Business Administration with focus on Health Care Management from the Boston-University.

Better known as Brusselsgeek, Jennifer has been a journalist in print, radio and television for 20 years, the last 10+ specialising in EU policy.

She has worked across a wide range of media, from editing a national daily paper in Malta, to reporting on European affairs for Middle Eastern television, and has a wealth of experience in navigating the political quagmire of the EU. As well as an address book packed with insider sources and contacts in Brussels, Jennifer is skilled at translating EU policy-speak into understandable English.