The Commission’s Health Emergency and Preparedness Response Authority (HERA) and the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED) are strengthening their cooperation on medical countermeasures to step up prevention, preparedness and response to serious cross border health threats. This is in line with the objectives of the EU Global Health Strategy and the Commission’s push to reinforce global cooperation to tackle global health threats.
The COVID-19 pandemic has shown the need for international cooperation to prevent, combat and contain serious cross-border health threats. Collaboration around infectious disease emergency preparedness and response is a joint interest internationally. As part of the working arrangement, HERA and AMED will exchange information on advanced research and development of medical countermeasures. They will also identify areas and potential projects to closely work together, for instance on priority pathogens that are of interest for both. HERA and AMED will also regularly meet and collaborate on future priorities.
Health and Food Safety Commissioner Stella Kyriakides (pictured) said: “Health crises preparedness is most efficient through a global approach. I welcome this new collaboration between HERA and Japan’s Agency for Medical Research and Development and the strengthening of our ties with Japan in the area of cross border health threats. With this working arrangement we will pull expertise together and better coordinate our research priorities on medical countermeasures. This will help reinforce global health security and international work on medical countermeasures, one of the key goals of the EUs Global Health Strategy.”
This working arrangement will be running for an initial three years with the possibility for prolongation.
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