Le forum pharmaceutique loin du consensus

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.

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.