Today, EMA published

details of the newly created solidarity mechanism

developed by the EMA Medicines Shortages Steering Group (MSSG). This voluntary mechanism allows Member States to support each other in the face of a critical medicine shortage.

The solidarity mechanism, which is based on an informal setup during COVID-19, will enable any Member State facing a critical shortage that has been escalated to the MSSG for coordination at European level to request assistance from other Member States in obtaining medicine stocks. This mechanism can only be used under very limited conditions and was developed as a last resort for Member States after they have exhausted all other possibilities.

The solidarity mechanism complements a number of actions that the MSSG can carry out to address critical shortages in the EU. These were also published today as part of the

MSSG Toolkit

. The toolkit includes recommendations for monitoring supply and demand,…