Health Action International’s (HAI) work in Europe contributes to EU policy that promotes universal and equitable access to affordable medicines for needed treatment. HAI also supports policies and practices that ensure those medicines respond to societal challenges, are acceptably safe, and appropriately prescribed and used.
HAI’s 2017 European work plan focuses on providing technical expertise to policy makers, patient and consumer organisations, health NGOs and other relevant stakeholders. It also focuses on researching the extent of the pharmaceutical industry’s promotion of antibiotics to patients and healthcare professionals, as well as on identifying barriers to teaching on promotions in the medical curriculum. HAI will also enable public discussion on affordable access to needed medicines through the organization of public events. HAI will work towards these goals to support EU action that provides responses to gaps in medicines policies and are aligned with HAI’s overarching goals on Access to Needed Medicines, Rational Use of Medicines and Democratisation of Medicines Policy projects. Through its European network, HAI provides an independent patient and consumer voice in decisions that affects their health while advocating for high levels of transparency, accountability and impartiality.
HAI is a non-profit, independent non-profit organisation. It maintains a European membership network of consumer groups, healthcare professionals, academics and public interest NGOs. The growing European regional network is represented in over half of the EU’s Member States. The HAI European office coordinates actions in collaboration with the HAI Europe Association and European civil society organisations.

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