The European Commission on Tuesday launched some short-term measures to prevent medicine shortages this winter and the next as a stop-gap while a proposed pharmaceutical rules overhaul is hashed out by the EU's key legislative arms. After the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing medicine shortages due to supply chain bottlenecks, the Commission proposed the first major reform of its pharmaceutical regulations in April and hopes to forge a closer health union. A key short-term move is the set up of a voluntary mechanism between member states to fill medicine gaps across the block this winter.