Cancer care is a critical priority for COCIR and its Members.
In this section we would like to summarize all the initiatives taken by COCIR and its Members to show the value of the medical technology industries in cancer prevention, early diagnosis, treatment and after care.
Hereafter are listed all the activities and initiatives that have been taken by COCIR and will continue throughout the next months and years.
On 4 February 2021, COCIR welcomed [here] Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan, supporting the European Commission’s ambition to deploy all available EU resources -political, legislative and financial- in the fight against cancer. The Plan aims to support the Member States in their efforts to address cancer and provide the EU citizens with universal and equal access to cancer prevention and care of high quality. Presented on 3 February 2021, the European Commission’s Plan hinges on ten flagship initiatives and 32 supporting actions in four action areas, e.g. prevention, diagnosis, treatment and quality of life, to be rolled out over the coming years.
In parallel, the European Parliament's Special Committee on Cancer (BECA) has been working on an own-initiative report. This report will make the Parliament's contribution to the implementation of Europe's Beating Cancer plan. COCIR has been following the work of BECA providing regular updates to the COCIR members. As a last point, COCIR has contributed to the BECA survey on the Impact COVID19-pandemic on cancer care and research [input submitted on 24 February 2021].
As part of the open session of our COCIR General Assembly, on 2 July 2020, we launched our COCIR Position Paper on Cancer entitled: ‘Enhancing Value in Cancer Prevention and Care: Industry Perspectives and Recommendations’. This Paper reflects the structure of Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan and puts forward individual recommendations for each phase of the cancer continuum.
The COVID-19 pandemic initiated the trend of virtual events, which COCIR has been following for over a year now. Privileging partnerships with other stakeholders, we are organising our event agendas in a way that all critical stakeholders are included in the exchange views on cancer.
• On 2 July 2020: The open session of the COCIR General Assembly was dedicated to cancer, bearing the title: Beating Cancer Together. This virtual event was organized in partnership with European Cancer Leagues. Moreover, COCIR used this opportunity to launch a COCIR Position Paper [see above].
• On 21 October 2020: COCIR held a virtual event in partnership with Anticancer Fund entitled: Can we improve the future of Breast Cancer Care in the EU?
• On 4 November 2020: COCIR in Partnership with ESR and LuCE held the virtual event: How can the Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan drive implementation of Lung Cancer Screening Programmes Across Europe?
• On 18 March 2021, COCIR held the virtual event Working together against cervical cancer
In 2020, COCIR has been an active partner in the dialogue with the EU policy makers on cancer care providing input to the following European Commission’s public consultations:
• stakeholder consultation on the Roadmap of the Europe’ Beating Cancer Plan [2 March 2020],
• public consultation of the Europe’ Beating Cancer Plan [20 May 2020],
• interview organized by the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies on Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan [8 Sep 2020]
Moreover, on 2 February 2021, COCIR provided feedback to three European Commission public consultations regarding the European Health Union, e.g.
• COCIR Contribution to the Public Consultation on serious cross-border threats
• COCIR Contribution to the Public Consultation on the ECDC mandate
• COCIR Contribution to the Public Consultation on the EMA mandate
Lastly, on 11 February 2021, COCIR contributed to another cancer related public consultation on the Evaluation of the Directive regarding patients’ rights in cross-border care.
Refer to the dedicated COCIR section on COVID-19.
To read more, click HERE
• COCIR mandated Science Business to issue a study on Breast Cancer. This study was released in June 2019 and an associated conference organised by Science Business included a dedicated session in its programme in September 2019
• On 11 June 2020, the COCIR blog post: Proud supporters of the European Week Against Cancer, illustrated our clear support to this initiative and presented the value of the COCIR member industries in the provision of quality and state-of-the art, innovative medical technology in cancer care.
• On 4 February 2020, COCIR celebrated the 20th anniversary of World Cancer Day with a blog post by its Secretary General, Nicole Denjoy, who also highlighted the COCIR participation in the Union for International Cancer Control's (UICC) awareness campaign “I Am and I Will”.
COCIR has always been involved in initiatives linked to cancer, starting with CANCON and then EPAAC. Today COCIR is participating in iPAAC, EPAAC’s subsequent EU funded Joint Action on cancer.
iPAAC was launched on 1 April 2018 and will run until 2021. It brings together 44 partners from 24 countries and its activities are divided in 10 Work Packages [WP]. iPAAC focuses on the implementation of the recommendations deriving from the previous EU joint actions against cancer, e.g. EPAAC and CANCON. These recommendations target National Cancer Control Programmes, screening, cancer care, cancer data and cancer control networks.
Moreover, iPAAC is tackling new areas of cancer control, such as genomics and innovative treatments.
To be noted, that the iPAAC deliverables are leveraged in the development and implementation of Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan.