On November 18, 2020 the AEB CEO Tadzio Schilling delivered a speech at the closing session of the two day EU-Russia Healthcare Conference “Designing Tomorrow’s Healthcare Systems”. 

The conference was organized by the EU Delegation to the Russian Federation, Ministry of Healthcare and Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation with the support of the World Health Organisation. 

The AEB contributed to the conference by conducting a series of consultations between the AEB Health & Pharmaceuticals Committee members and the EU delegation to Russia on the program structure and priority discussion topics.

The conference gathered senior level speakers including the EU Ambassador to Russia, the WHO Regional Director for Europe, the Russian Deputy Minister of Health, European Medical Agency and others. The event provided a platform for reflecting on how to make the healthcare systems of Russia and the EU more resilient and performing in the current challenging context. 

This conference presents a great step forward to intensifying the EU-Russia dialogue on healthcare issues which we hope will result in new joint initiatives and projects. It has shown that EU and Russia have a lot of common challenges to address as regards their healthcare systems. By sharing experiences and best practices, both EU and Russia can learn a lot, create synergies. All actors, industry, regulators and international organisations, should work hand in hand to develop common standards and harmonise approaches. Innovation, prevention and research are fundamentals in designing tomorrow’s healthcare systems bearing in mind that health is universal, health is not national.