Published: October 2025

BRUSSELS, 29/10/2025 – The Online Order and Home Delivery of Medicines (OnHOME) Alliance has submitted its feedback to the European Commission’s Call for Evidence on the Union’s future prevention, preparedness and response plan for health crises. 

The Alliance welcomes the initiative to strengthen Europe’s readiness through a forward-looking, people-centred framework and calls on the Commission to explicitly recognise safe digital access to prescription medicines as a core component of EU health security. 

“Allowing patients to access prescribed medicines safely online, through registered pharmacies, is a practical, patient-focused way to strengthen Europe’s crisis readiness, especially for people with chronic or life-threatening conditions,” said Mike Isles, Director of ASOP EU and Secretariat of the OnHOME Alliance. “The tools exist today. What’s needed is a clear policy signal to scale them consistently across the EU.” 

The OnHOME Alliance highlights five key areas where safe, digital access to medicines can strengthen the EU’s health security framework: 

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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 (Cophenhagen Economics).
4. 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. 
5. Workforce resilience and innovation: expanding telepharmacy and online consultations alleviates strain on health workers, maintains service delivery during emergencies, and reinforces pharmacist-patient interaction.

The OnHOME Alliance urges the European Commission to explicitly recognise safe digital access to prescription medicines as a complementary instrument for EU health security and to collaborate with Member States in harmonising and scaling these practices across Europe. The Alliance looks forward to the forthcoming adoption of the Union plan, expected in Q4 2025, and stands ready to support the European Commission in advancing a more resilient, digital, and patient-centred health system.

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 30 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.