Tag: pharma companies

The EU regulator said yesterday (17 January) that it was pressing pharmaceutical companies for more information on their patent deals with generic companies, in a bid to make sure there is no delay in cheaper drugs coming to market.

The system for medical innovation is broken. The number of people struggling to obtain or afford essential medicines is rising at a dangerous pace. There must be a radical overhaul, said experts at a European Parliament hearing on Thursday (18 November).

Patent settlements between pharmaceutical companies are set for European Commission scrutiny over concerns that some of the deals could deny EU consumers broader choice and lower-priced medicines.

The days of the $1 billion blockbuster drug are over, according to a senior industry researcher. Big pharma is now investing in finding multiple uses for medicines developed to treat rare diseases, but is pushing the EU for regulatory changes to make research worthwhile.

European Commission Vice-President Günter Verheugen has called for the revival of the stalled directive on providing information to patients, which has been held up by EU health ministers.

The European Commission is today widely expected to confirm earlier allegations that big pharma groups are breaching EU competition rules by blocking the entry of cheaper generics onto the European market.

A joint Commission-pharma industry research initiative to speed up the development of new drugs and cut down development costs began operating on 30 April 2008.

The Commission has raided the offices of a number of top pharmaceutical companies to find out whether anti-competitive practices in the sector have hindered innovation and blocked the entry of cheap generics on the European market.

The first meeting of the High Level Pharmaceutical Forum (HLPF) is set to be difficult. In order to control the health costs, the member states are likely to block any change on the topics under discussion: pricing of medicines, the assessment of relative effectiveness of drugs and information for patients, argues MEP Jorgo Chatzimarkakis in an interview with EurActiv.

Pharma companies will have a tougher time extending the patents for some of their products following a judgment by the European Court of Justice.

One of the arguments this report formulates is that there is a "real and urgent need to rebuild trust between people and the medicines they use" at a time when medicines are "highly safe" and "hugely beneficial" to personal and public healthcare. 

At an EU conference on company taxation on 29-30 April, EU Actors gave considerable support to the Commission's proposal that companies should ultimately be allowed to use a single consolidated tax base for their EU-wide business activities.

A new study published by CEPS (the Centre for European Policy Studies) proposes a Corporate Tax Action Plan as a means of achieving corporate tax reform in the EU.