Representing medium-sized pharma
pharmafile | September 16, 2010 | Feature | Sales and Marketing | European Medicines Group, UCB
UCB’s Matthew Speers is the new chairman of the European Medicines Group, which represents European-owned pharma companies in the UK. Here he tells Pharmafocus about his new role and some of the challenges he faces.
Why did you decide to take on the role of chair of the European Medicines Group?
UCB has been a member of the EMG for some years now and I have been involved personally for the past 18 months.
The role of chair, which is a position elected by the membership, requires not only leadership of the group but also a linkage with the ABPI. Given my current role on the board of management at the ABPI and the fact that UCB has not chaired the group since its launch, it seemed the right time to stand for election.
How is pharma changing in the European market?
Perhaps the biggest challenge is the financial pressure on all health systems, the increasing focus on the cost of medicines and what value medicines can bring.
Industry needs to bring medicines to market that represent and demonstrate value for money. We also need to work with governments to ensure that the environment is right to research and develop them, and then fairly assess their value as opposed to their cost. Now more than ever we need to work with governments on a fair way of assessing this, whilst creating a vibrant science and research base that enables the next generation of innovative treatments to be brought to patients.
What are your views on the new NHS reforms?
The ambitions for a more patient-focused and clinically-led NHS are absolutely right.
The impact of the reforms will depend entirely on how well they are implemented and whether the right support is put in place to do this. We need to ensure that in the new era of GP-led commissioning the focus is on prevention, early diagnosis and timely intervention in order to reduce the burden of chronic conditions that are such a threat to the financial security of the NHS.
The government faces a significant challenge in ensuring that the productivity savings needed are delivered at the same time as implementing the reforms set out in the White Paper, aligning this reorganisation with the QIPP (Quality, Innovation, Productivity & Prevention) initiative within the NHS.
Many detailed questions remain to be answered in further papers and consultations before we can really get a sense of how successfully these wide-reaching proposals will be implemented; and critically whether the government can engage and motivate clinicians and managers to work effectively together to lead change across local health economies and deliver improvements in quality and productivity.
From a pharmaceutical industry perspective we have a role in helping to meet the challenges set out. For instance, the use of medicines to prevent and control chronic diseases is one of the most powerful tools available to the NHS to keep patients out of hospital, reduce length of stay and improve efficiencies without compromising patient quality of care.
This gets to the very heart of the reforms set out in the White Paper and our ambition as a group has long been to improve the health and quality of life of people in the UK by ensuring timely access to appropriate, innovative medicines – access comparable with other countries in Europe.
What are you looking forward to the most in your new role?
Having a new government makes it a very interesting time to be involved in health policy development – the White Paper is already being heralded as potentially the biggest shake up for the NHS since its inception.
The pharmaceutical industry has a crucial role in working alongside the government to support implementation of the proposals set out in the Paper, for example to co-create policies on how to better reflect value in the pricing of NHS medicines.
Many of our EMG members are leaders in their field, producing treatments that tackle conditions like hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease and transplantation, and make a real difference to the quality of people’s lives and disease outcomes.
Bringing together all of that expertise and the perspectives from other European health economies to help develop and deliver proposals in the White Paper is something I am particularly looking forward to as I believe we can add value and make a difference to the health of our nation.
And what could be the least enjoyable?
The White Paper is littered with references to further papers and consultations. I have no doubt that finding the time to read all of this and keep on top of the endless views and reviews that will no doubt follow will be the least enjoyable aspect of the coming months for my EMG colleagues and I!
What are the most common misconceptions about pharma and the people who work within it?
I think there is still a slight distrust of our industry and its motivations and as a consequence the people who work in the pharmaceutical sector.
The misconception is that we have a differing agenda to the DH, the NHS, clinicians and patients. I firmly believe that we don’t. There is genuine desire on all sides to improve patient care and outcomes and this can be achieved to the mutual benefit of all the organisations involved.
Correcting this misconception is of crucial importance and we must continue to work to change and monitor behaviour across the industry, to make sure we understand and respond to the views of our stakeholders and build on the partnership work already being undertaken that is helping to deliver the shared goals of improved patient outcomes and quality of care for UK citizens.
If you had advice for anyone starting out in the industry now, what would it be?
The first thing to say is that the pharmaceutical industry is a fantastic place to work and offers a huge range of careers and opportunities that should attract some of the brightest and best talent.
I think it is important for anyone starting out in the pharmaceutical industry, whether in research, sales and marketing or manufacturing to always remember that what we do as a research-based industry is change lives and save lives.
That is what keeps us operating as a vibrant and innovative industry, in the face of constant challenge, not least that provided by the current global financial climate.
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