UK is example to Europe on patient information, says industry
pharmafile | October 9, 2008 | News story | Medical Communications | patients
British pharma is free to provide necessary and sufficient information to patients about its drugs, and an example to be copied by the rest of Europe, according to industry leaders.
Dr Richard Barker, director general of the Association of British Pharmaceutical Industry, said that other European countries should strive for "exactly the freedoms that we have in the today in the UK".
He said that Britain was a liberal environment, compared to other member states, as companies can work with other stakeholders to distribute fair information via the internet and other mediums to the public.
Also in the UK, pharma can work with NHS trusts to produce information leaflets specific to disease areas.
Barker added: "And to my knowledge, the sky hasn't fallen [in] in the UK."
His comments come ahead of controversial new draft European legislation on patient information later this month.
Some critics of this say any easing of the current ban could see Europe getting US-style direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising through the 'back door'.
"There's a lot of scaremongering going on around this subject," said Dr Barker. Making reassurances once again, he said the industry didn't want to introduce DTC by "the back door, the front door or the side door".
The ABPI's president Chris Brinsmead echoed this sentiment, and said the industry body was happy with the current level of patient information in the UK, and that the rest of the Europe would benefit from a similar system.
The high-level pharmaceutical forum, a group of EU officials, member states, drug companies and consumer groups, has just called for Europe to relax its ban on pharma's direct contact with the public, so that companies in all countries might provide patients with quality information about their drugs.
Its recommendations – along with the anticipated draft legislation – could revolutionise the way European industry communicates with the public, but any shift to current laws would be delayed by next year's European parliamentary elections.
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