Established as a Directorate General by the European Commission on 16 September 2021, HERA presented its second Work Plan for 2023 activities, allocating up to EUR 1.3 billion.
At the heart of next year’s project, five key objectives aim to prevent, detect and respond promptly to cross-border health emergencies:
- The establishment of a state-of-the-art IT system for information gathering, threat assessment, medical countermeasure availability mapping and storage management systems (HERA’s MCMI platform)
- Development of medical countermeasures such as:
- Countering antimicrobial resistance (AMR) threats
- resistance to chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) threats
- innovative vaccines, therapies and diagnostics against and beyond COVID-19
- contribution of a vaccines 2.0 strategy, advocating for investments of a minimum value of 80 MEUR
- Set up a production reserve on vaccines in case of new public health emergencies (EU FAB)
- Establish a funding mechanism – ‘HERA INVEST’ – totalling 100 MEUR, to be invested in the development of innovative medical countermeasures
- An EU strategic approach on storage, including CRBN, medical and other medical countermeasures.
This development is coherent with the 2022 pathway of identifying preliminary health threats. HERA aims to establish 2023 a list of specific causes of cross-border health threats and related medical defections at the EU level.
HERA will subsequently develop a training and support plan to enhance Member States’ knowledge of medical countermeasures preparedness and response.
Finally, HERA will continue strengthening cooperation and cohesion on global health security, ensuring availability and access to medical countermeasures for all. Through the involvement of strategic partners, the aim is to unite global capabilities to address obstacles in the supply chain and expand global production capacity.
More details at this LINK
