EU Plans Medical Device Shortage Steering Group

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) is taking on a new role in monitoring and mitigating medical device shortages during public health emergencies, through a yet-to-be-created Medical Devices Shortages Steering Group (MDSSG).

The planned group will help implement EU legislation passed in January 2022 in response to the pandemic that expanded EMA’s involvement in crisis preparedness and management for medicinal products and medical devices.

The agency is now responsible for coordinating responses of EU and European Economic Area (EU/EEA) countries to shortages of critical medicines and medical devices, including in-vitro diagnostics.

The MDSSG will develop lists of medical devices it considers to be critical and will work with manufacturers, importers, distributors and notified bodies to monitor supply and demand to prevent and mitigate shortages.