Published: December 2025

BRUSSELS, 03/12/2025 – The Online Order and Home Delivery of Medicines (OnHOME) Alliance expresses concern that the European Commission’s newly published Union prevention, preparedness and response plan for health crises fails to reflect essential recommendations provided during the public consultation in November 2025, particularly those focused on leveraging digital tools to strengthen health system resilience.

Released on 28 November as a Communication accompanied by a Staff Working Document, the Plan outlines how the EU intends to coordinate prevention and preparedness efforts, mobilise joint capacities and resources, recognise and respond to EU-level public health emergencies, and support Member States in reinforcing their own systems. It forms a key part of the Commission’s broader 30-action plan outlined in the EU’s Preparedness Union Strategy.

While the OnHOME Alliance welcomes the Commission’s commitment to a more coordinated and structured EU approach to future health crises, the Plan notably omits any reference to digital tools and infrastructures that could materially improve Europe’s readiness and resilience.

“Europe cannot build a modern crisis-ready health system while overlooking digital access to medicines and healthcare services,” said Martino Canonico, Head of EAEP Brussels Office and Secretariat of the OnHOME Alliance. “The omission of measures to expand safe online access to medicines, leverage EU digital infrastructure, or scale telepharmacy represents a significant missed opportunity, given the lessons learned from recent health emergencies, especially during the COVID epidemic. Digitalisation must be an integral part of any future strategy aimed at strengthening healthcare systems across Europe.”

Key gaps in the Commission’s Plan

Despite setting an EU-level blueprint for Member States to align their national crisis plans, the Communication does not address several essential areas highlighted by the Alliance in its consultation response:

• Strengthening continuity of care and resilience: online ordering and home delivery of prescribed medicines ensure uninterrupted treatment for vulnerable patients when mobility, supply chains, or healthcare capacity are disrupted.
• Leveraging existing EU digital infrastructure: integration with existing EU systems, such as the European Health Data Space (EHDS)and the European Digital Identity (EUDI) can reinforce authenticity, safety, and interoperability.
• Reducing vulnerabilities in medicine access: improved digital access helps address low treatment adherence, which costs the EU an estimated €125 billion annually and contributes to 200,000 premature deaths (Khan, R. and K. Socha-Dietrich (2018)).
• Protecting citizens from falsified medicines: promoting legitimate, registered e-pharmacies with the EU Common Logo provides citizens with trusted options and counters the illegal sale of online medicine. 
• Workforce resilience and innovation: expanding telepharmacy and online consultations alleviates strain on health workers, maintains service delivery during emergencies, and reinforces pharmacist-patient interaction.

A call for stronger, more forward-looking action

The OnHOME Alliance urges the European Commission and Member States to incorporate safe digital access to medicines into the operationalisation of the Plan, particularly as national authorities align their own preparedness frameworks with the EU blueprint. Coordination through the Health Security Committee, established in 2022, offers a timely opportunity to ensure that digital tools are fully leveraged.

The Alliance stands ready to work with EU institutions and Member States to ensure that digital tools, telepharmacy, and safe online access to medicines are recognised as essential components of Europe’s comprehensive health security toolbox.

Read the full OnHOME Alliance response to the European Commission’s Call for Evidence here. 

For any additional information, please contact:

Martino Canonico or Mike Isles, OnHOME Alliance secretariat 

martino.canonico@eaep.com, mike.isles@asop.eu 

About the OnHOME Alliance 

The OnHOME Alliance is a coalition of more than 35 patient organisations and healthcare stakeholders working to secure digital access to prescribed medicines for all European patients. As only 8 EU Member States have provided this benefit, the Alliance aims to remove such inequality so that all patients throughout the EU may have the convenience and efficiency of a safe and secure way of receiving the prescription medicines direct to their home or delivery address of their choice.