Significant reforms of healthcare systems are underway around the world. The European pharmaceutical industry is keen to lend its expertise to these discussions to help ensure that the end results include increased access to innovative treatments for patients and expansion of healthcare coverage to lower-income populations.
The biggest challenge currently facing Europe’s health systems is sustainability. The EU’s reflection process on chronic diseases is an opportunity for change that must be taken, given that these diseases make up a large proportion of healthcare costs. Building on the EU competence in the field of public health, the European Commission could take a more active role in facilitating and co-ordinating the exchange of national and regional best practices in the field of prevention of chronic diseases, as well as evaluating them. This could include experiences with health promotion programmes, involving multiple relevant stakeholders – employers, the workforce, and health insurers – or with the implementation of patient registries. Along with the transfer of ideas and knowledge, models, tools and solutions that can be used in other countries could be developed, promoted and implemented.
The industry is also promoting new thinking about how we improve patients’ adherence to treatment. The issue is one of the most pressing facing healthcare systems in Europe. The reasons for non-adherence are complex, as are the factors that define how well individuals manage their health. Improving health literacy should be a priority, not least in light of the need to address chronic disease.
Health information is an important consideration of how to enhance patient empowerment, but also in terms of what role, if any, industry can play in providing information to patients. EFPIA believes that empowerment involves a change in the patient’s role in the healthcare system, but we are still in the early stages of understanding what sorts of informational supports are most useful for patients.
Patient safety is fundamental to everything we do as is promoting confidence among patients on the safety of the medicines they are prescribed. Great efforts have been put into updating the legislative framework on falsified medicines. The next phase is the implementation of the legislation throughout EU Member States and ensuring that patients and their physicians are properly informed. The implementation entails adopting a harmonised tracking system for medicines to guarantee the reliability of the supply chain. To this end, the pharmaceutical industry is - together with key supply chain partners - involved in setting up an EU-wide coding and serialisation system, the European Stakeholder Model (ESM), aimed at ensuring the safety of the supply chain through an interoperable and cost-effective system across the EU. According to the European Association for Access to Safe Medicines (EAASM), 60% of medicines purchased online are falsified, fake or substandard. As more and more patients look to the Internet for the supply of medicines, EFPIA is committed to protecting their safety and promoting access to safe and efficacious medicines, advocating for robust patient education and awareness, and combating unsafe medicines, including those sold by illegitimate online pharmacies.
Pharmacovigilance is a key public health function and there is a need to strive to ensure its effectiveness, so that patients continue to access safe medicines. There is a wide range of stakeholders integral to this process, from patients to doctors and regulatory authorities. Therefore, it is important to consider the appropriate level of involvement of these different stakeholders to ensure the process is not complicated more than necessary. EFPIA has consistently been supportive of efforts to strengthen, rationalise and streamline the EU’s pharmacovigilance system.
Clinical trials should allow increasing numbers of patients to benefit from innovative medicines that are still in development. Between 2005 and 2010, over 297,000 patients took part in clinical trials in Europe. This represents around 40% of trials conducted globally for that period. Despite this, Europe’s clinical trials infrastructure remains fragmented. This discourages investment and limits opportunities for participation. Furthermore, with the revision for the EU Clinical Trials Directive under discussion, the European pharmaceutical industry is seeking for more streamlined procedures that are better adapted to the new science in order to get innovative medicines to the patient more quickly.
The 2013 eHealth week concluded yesterday, after 3 days of events that brought together industry partners, healthcare professionals, and decision-makers from across Europe to discuss the current possibilities and challenges facing eHealth. The event also offered the opportunity to celebrate eHealth success stories and raise awareness around the eHealth movement.
You can’t provide a person with a routine, potentially life-saving, vaccine if you can’t find them. This is the point driven home by a recent Nature article, which suggests that the difficulty of vaccinating Nigerian nomads could be among the final hurdles to polio eradication. To address this, the National Stop Transmission of Polio (N-STOP) programme has undertaken a census of Fulani nomads and other isolated populations in Nigeria.
On 22 January, MEP Christofer Fjellner hosted a lunch debate in the European Parliament on the transfer of technology from developed to developing countries. The aim was to discuss how collaboration between the private and the public sector could best achieve improve access to patients in all third countries. In order to have a constructive debate the panel was composed of representatives from the European Commission (DG DEVCO) Dr.
EFPIA held its 2nd Annual DG Lecture on December 6th at the Thon hotel. The theme of this year was: "Access to new medicines: time for a progressive model". Please find the slides presented by EFPIA's Director General below.
Read the full Presentation of Richard Bergstöm, Director General of EFPIA
Read the full transcript from Richard Bergtröm's speech
Productive discourse between those who believe in the fundamental importance of the patent system and those who do not, is hindered by the technical and legal complexity of patent law. A complexity compounded in the pharmaceutical sector by the interaction of the patent system with drug regulatory practice. Misleading characterizations of the pharmaceutical patent system ( including recent references to “extending patents for decades” ) have become an increasingly common part of public debates concerning both access to pharmaceuticals and the incentives to investment in pharma R&D.
European Biopharmaceutical Enterprises (EBE) is organising a forum entitled European Biopharmaceutical Industry - Future for Patients, supported by Italian Embassy in London with the participation of European Medicines Agency (EMA).
Two weeks ago, President Obama was reelected for four more years. EFPIAs Director General Richard Bergström sets out his views on the challenges and opportunities ahead.
It was exciting to follow the campaigns and see the results come in. I was in DC the day after the election, and could see that the big divide between Democrats and Republicans will remain. Just comparing the news coverage by FOX and MSNBC was fascinating. Are the channels describing the same country?
