“A generation of cancer patients is being sacrificed” because of drug shortages in Europe, expert says

Italy’s health minister, Renato Balduzzi, has asked the European Commission to tackle the shortage of anticancer drugs affecting Greece and other European Union countries as a result of austerity measures.1

The request was made during a press conference of the Open Forum of the European Partnership for Action Against Cancer (EPAAC), held in Rome on 19-20 June.

Asked by the BMJ whether European institutions shouldn’t demand joint action, John Dalli, the European commissioner for health and consumers, said that healthcare was the responsibility of member states, which would not countenance …