Only 66 of the 168 innovative medicinal treatments approved by EU authorities from 2021 to 2024 were available in Cyprus, a survey has shown.

Carried out by the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (Efpia), the survey showed Cyprus lagging behind both in terms of the number of available medicinal products and in terms of the time needed for the products to come to market.

According to the Patients Wait (Waiting to Access Innovative Therapies) Indicator, from 2021 to 2024 a total of 168 new medicines became available in the EU and the European Economic Area (36 countries).

Across the EU, the average number of products available was 76 (45 per cent of 168).

Cyprus fell below the average, at 66 products.

The island also fared poorly in terms of time to availability – defined as the number of days between marketing authorisation and the date of availability to patients.

Across the 36 countries surveyed, the median time to availability was 532 days, ranging from 56 days in Germany to 1,201 days in Romania.

In Cyprus it was 416 days, slightly better than the average.

For cancer treatments specifically, out of the 56 approved products, 32 were available in Cyprus.

Commenting on the latest data, the Cyprus Association of Research and Development Pharmaceutical Companies (Kefea) said the island ranks 21st out of the 36 countries surveyed.

This, Kefea said, confirms the long-running shortcomings in product assessment and availability.

In addition, in Cyprus 92 per cent of the products that were available were subject to special procedures or restricted access. This contrasted to Germany, where unrestricted access to the products was 100 per cent.

The Efpia survey found an 88 per cent access disparity between the highest and lowest European country.

“As in previous years the root causes of unavailability and delay to accessing new medicines are multifactorial, ranging from the speed of regulatory processes to misalignment on evidence requirements to insufficient budgets in Member States,” Efpia said.

For better access and faster availability, Efpia recommends a step change to processes, allowing patients to benefit from a medicine as soon as it is approved.

“This would mean patients getting access to the latest treatments while national Health Technology Assessment and reimbursement processes take place – within an agreed time frame of 180 days. Day 1 access could remove months, or even years of delays waiting for national pricing and reimbursement discussion to be concluded.”

Efpia noted that improved availability requires increased spending on new medicines across the EU, as global R&D has been disproportionality paid for by the United States for decades.

Europe spends around 1 per cent of GDP on pharmaceuticals compared with 2 per cent in the United States and 1.8 per cent in China.