McKillop calls for changes to EU pharmaceutical market
pharmafile | December 8, 2005 | News story | Research and Development |Â Â Â
AstraZeneca's chief executive Sir Tom McKillop says action is needed on pricing and the clinical trials environment in order to make Europe an attractive base for pharmaceutical investment once again.
McKillop was representing the industry in a EU round table discussion on the future of pharmaceutical innovation in Europe – which pharma says continues to suffer from anti-competitive price controls.
The meeting was chaired by the UK government, current president of the EU and a supporter of plans to liberalise prescription medicines pricing across the Union.
McKillop called on the European Commission, industry leaders, and member states to put together a package of programmes that would help aid patient access to innovative, affordable medicines.
Two issues included in the programme should be changes to the pricing and reimbursement of drugs across the EU and measures to encourage pharmaceutical companies to undertake clinical trials across Europe, said McKillop.
"We have had a squeeze on prices by individual member states. Governments set the price of pharmaceuticals and tell us what we can sell our products for. They impose price cuts on us.
"If a country is facing a budgetary pressure then it can cut the price of drugs overnight. Why should a government save money like this at the manufacturer's expense?" questioned McKillop.
McKillop's solution is that EU member states should only control prices of medicines purchased or reimbursed by the state, without recourse to implementing price cuts.
In effect, this would lift price controls on sales to the private sector and medicines which are not reimbursed by the state.
This, he said, would be a step towards a competition-based market across the EU and encourage industry investment in innovative medicines.
The pricing and reimbursement of drugs is one of a raft of issues which will be discussed by industry leaders and EU member states at next year's 'Pharmaceutical Forum', which will look at ways of re-energising the European pharmaceutical market.
One issue which should be high on the agenda, added McKillop, is looking at ways to encourage investment in clinical trials in Europe.
"Clinical trials are one of the most effective means for patients to get access to innovative medicines, particularly if you have a rare condition. Many thousands of lives are saved by clinical trials," he said.
"But if clinical trials move away from Europe, then patients are getting much less access to innovative drugs."
In recent years, the industry has increasingly looked to the US and low-cost markets, like Asia and Eastern Europe, to undertake clinical trials.
The EU with its high level of bureaucracy has lost its competitive edge and has become less attractive to companies.
Heinz Zourek, representing the European Commission's Enterprise directorate said the Pharmaceutical Forum would concentrate on three core issues: pricing and reimbursement; information to patients on new drugs; and the cost and clinical effectiveness of medicines.
"We are concerned because the pharmaceutical sector is of strategic importance. It's one of the rare sectors with high value added, high research intensity and a high skill base. When we lose out in the pharmaceutical sector, we lose out overall," Zourek concluded.
The first meeting of the Pharmaceutical Forum will be held in summer 2006 (a date to be confirmed shortly) under the Austrian presidency.
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