Uppsala: US drug pricing has become a European policy problem, and on 15 October 2026 the European Parliament’s public health committee voted on two questions for oral answer asking the Commission and the Council how Europe should respond. The questions were sponsored by Renew Europe member Stine Bosse, and reports of the vote appeared on 16 October.

The concern is that American price controls are changing where medicines launch first. According to figures cited in the debate, new medicine launches in Europe fell by 35 percent in the ten months after the US most-favoured-nation policy began. Europe’s share of global clinical trial starts also fell from about 22 percent to between 12 and 13 percent over a decade.

Those numbers explain the urgency in the committee. If companies delay European launches to protect their US price position, patients in member states could wait longer for new treatments, and hospitals could lose access to trials that bring early treatment to patients. US drug pricing therefore reaches beyond trade policy into care.

Speed is part of the story. Clinical trial approval in Europe takes 116 days on the figures quoted, while the proposed Biotech Act targets 75 days. Patients wait roughly 597 days between marketing approval and actual access to a treatment, a gap that matters as much to patients as the price debate itself.

US drug pricing is also a trade matter. The United States Trade Representative opened a Section 301 investigation into German drug pricing on 18 June 2026, which raised the possibility that national price-setting rules could be treated as a trade barrier. Members asked whether the EU should answer with a common front rather than leave each capital to negotiate alone.

The legislative background is crowded. The pharmaceutical package is in its second reading, the Critical Medicines Act is under negotiation, and the Commission has proposed a Biotech Act. The questions do not amend any of these files, but they give members a way to press the Commission on how the three fit together.

Supporters of the questions say Europe needs a coordinated answer on US drug pricing, in which price negotiations, trial approvals and supply security are discussed together. Members hope the Commission will treat US drug pricing as a priority when it answers. The Commission has not yet answered, and the Council’s reply will show whether capitals share that view.

Procedure now decides what happens next. The Conference of Presidents has to decide whether the questions go to the plenary floor, and the health committee votes on its second-reading recommendation on the pharmaceutical package on 10 November 2026. The questions lapse on 6 January 2027 if no debate is held. The vote tally on the committee decision was not stated in the reports reviewed.

Whatever the outcome, the committee vote shows that US drug pricing is now a standing item for European health policy. Lawmakers want answers on launches, trials and patient access before the pharmaceutical package reaches its final form.