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MedTech World had the opportunity to speak with Mr Michele Picaro, Member of the European Parliament, about his role in Brussels and the policies being developed to strengthen healthcare across the European Union. From pharmaceutical legislation to prevention strategies, Mr Picaro emphasised the need for Europe to lead globally by investing in research, innovation, and education.
Mr Picaro opened by reflecting on his role in Brussels, highlighting the opportunity to share measures aimed at improving the quality of life for European citizens, including those in Malta, a country he visits often.
His parliamentary work spans across the Environment and Food Safety Committee, the Public Health Committee, and the Budget Committee. Within these responsibilities, he has been particularly active on pharmaceutical legislation. Over the past two years, he has focused on extending patent licences to ensure pharmaceutical companies that invest heavily in research and innovation are rewarded with more time to bring new treatments to market. The goal, he emphasized, is to strengthen incentives for innovation while ensuring European citizens gain access to more effective and efficient therapies.
A recurring theme in Mr Picaro’s remarks was the need to rebalance healthcare investment towards prevention.
“An important aspect to highlight regarding public health is changing the path of investment between treatment and prevention. For example, in Italy, there is a healthcare fund which, thanks to the Meloni government, has been better implemented than in previous years. They decided, rather than investing just 5% in prevention and 95% in treatment, to invest more in prevention and therefore in promoting healthy lifestyles which, alongside effective medical prevention, can improve quality of life, considering that, as people live longer, chronic diseases can be increasingly reduced.”
Conditions such as diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular problems, he explained, could be tackled more effectively through prevention and healthy living.
He also stressed the importance of reorganising healthcare delivery models, pointing to telemedicine as an example of how technology can expand access to care.
“With new organisational models, with a system that can make general practitioners increasingly central, including the possibility of handling remote needs, i.e. resolving the problem of distance between patient and doctor, including using telemedicine which lets you have a consultation with a doctor directly, wherever you happen to be in the world and also with 5G technologies that facilitate professional help despite the patient being thousands of miles away.”
Mr Picaro underlined the economic and strategic importance of Europe’s pharmaceutical sector.
“The European pharmaceutical industry today definitely holds a strategic importance, including from an economic perspective. A significant percentage of Italian GDP, for example, comes from Italian pharmaceuticals which date back thousands of years. The same can also be said for other pharmaceutical industries in Europe. Take, for example, the Danish industry which accounts for 35% of GDP in Denmark and which has expanded all across Europe and even around the world.”
He also spoke of the need for Europe to secure its supply of critical active ingredients.
“There is a file of critical drugs, for which I am also the rapporteur, which gives us the possibility to preserve them, store them, and obtain them at the right prices that can be competitive with Chinese companies, for example, which are currently trying to be increasingly aggressive from an economic and financial perspective.”
Mr Picaro highlighted how prevention must go hand in hand with education, citing the Mediterranean diet as a model.
“For example, the Mediterranean diet is an outstanding example of how to accompany a healthy lifestyle with a pathway that guarantees an average life expectancy for European citizens and I must remind you that Italy is the birthplace of the Mediterranean diet and places second as a country in terms of life expectancy after Japan, so it’s a model to follow in order to guarantee adequate and appropriate prevention.”
Just last month, Mr Picaro organised an event in Brussels dedicated to promoting the Mediterranean diet across all EU member states.
Innovation, he stressed, must remain a cornerstone of Europe’s healthcare vision.
“It’s essential to work on innovation and research, and on new and better medical devices that can guarantee adequate treatment, and treatment that is at the forefront compared to other healthcare systems found outside of Europe. So in this respect, Europe is taking responsibility with specific funds that are increasingly used by Member States and which I think we must pay growing attention to.”
Finally, he touched upon the growing importance of mental health, particularly after the pandemic.
“EU4Health is one of the European projects that allows us to invest in innovation and research. The issue of mental health, especially after the pandemic, is spreading more and more in Member States. The number of people who need mental health support is growing and in this respect all Member States and Europe are equipping themselves, taking action with specific programmes and, above all, a more widespread presence of specialist doctors.”
Across prevention, pharmaceutical resilience, digital innovation, and mental health, Mr Picaro’s reflections point toward a broader European vision: one that places citizens at the centre, strengthens autonomy, and ensures competitiveness worldwide.
The ongoing exchange between innovators, investors, and healthcare leaders is shaping new opportunities for collaboration and impact in MedTech. These discussions will continue at MedTech Malta 2025, taking place on 12–14 November in Valletta, Malta. The event will bring together global stakeholders to explore advancements in medical technology, tackle pressing challenges, and build partnerships that move healthcare forward. To be part of the conversation, connect with the team at [email protected].
