Pharmaceutical forum far from consensus[de] 

The High Level Pharmaceutical Forum published a progress report in its first meeting on 29 September 2006. The report describes the progress done on the three areas and gives directions for future work in the form of conclusions. None of the working groups has as yet achieved real results and much remains to be discussed before the forum is expected to deliver concrete results in June 2007.

The Information to patients working group has made the most progress since it was established in January 2006. Its work has concentrated on developing a 'model information package' on diseases using diabetes as an example, and on improving patient access to quality health information in all EU languages.

The working group on Pricing/Reimbursement (control of expenditure) is encouraged, in order to make further progress, to clarify views on the value of innovation in order to establish a sound basis for further discussion between stakeholders.

The working group on Relative effectiveness (assessing the effectiveness of medicines in comparison with other treatment options) aims to improve the degree of consensus between member states on the nature of the data required to carry out cost-effectiveness and relative effectiveness assessments and on the procedure to provide these data.

Before the forum, European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) Director-General Brian Ager insisted that "Europe needs to find the right balance between rewarding innovation, providing patient access to medicines and managing costs of social security systems".

The European Association for Bioindustries (EuropaBio) urges the need to guarantee "timely access to innovative medicines". 

The European Consumers' Organisation (BEUC) highlights the need to maintain a very clear distinction between information and advertising disguised as information. "This distinction is at risk as the current ban on advertising of prescription medicines directly to consumers seems to be called into question," states BEUC. "Pharmaceutical companies cannot provide impartial and comparative information as their main goal is to maximise sales. Because of this inherent conflict of interest, their role in providing information to patients should be clearly separated from the roles of other actors and limited to clear labelling," said BEUC Director Jim Murray.  

Standing Committee of European Doctors (CPME) President Dr Daniel Mart pointed out that "the emphasis regarding information for patient has shifted from information on pharmaceuticals to information on diseases" and thinks that the focus should remain on providing quality information on pharmaceuticals. Concerning the issues of relative effectiveness and the pricing and reimbursement, the CPME highlights the need for tools to facilitate the choice of the right medication at the right moment for each individual patient. "The lead theme should always be what is the best medication for the individual patient in a given situation," said Dr Mart.

The European Patients' Forum, the work of which is supported by the pharmaceutical industry, highlights the need for patient information to be provided from "a network of accessible sources 24 hours a day and 365 days a year. We have a unique opportunity to move forward to provide information for patients that enables them to make informed and educated choices about their lifestyle and treatment options." 

MEP Jorgo Chatzimarkakis  argues that the member states want to block any change on the current state of place of the issues discussed in the PharmaForum. "The member states want to block any change in assessment of relative effectiveness of medicines as they want to keep the costs down. They try to avoid any change in pricing because they want to control the costs. And, thirdly, they want to control the information," he said. 

"Patients in Europe do not have equal access to information on medicines. Today we have agreed to set up concrete ways to help ensure that all European patients can have access to information no matter where they live or what language they speak," said Health and Consumer Protection Commissioner Markos Kyprianou.