Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-10-22-Speech-2-030"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20021022.1.2-030"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I very much appreciate the fact that my colleague, Mrs Grossetête, has repeatedly highlighted considerations of public health and safety in her amendments. These are areas which, from the outset, medicinal products were intended to safeguard. These brief comments are not unnecessary. If, after all, medicinal products have, in many hands, become an end in themselves, and have gone against their original aim, Mrs Grossetête’s approach is a welcome restoration of discipline. I genuinely hope that spirit will remain in this directive up until we have finally achieved a result.
Furthermore, Amendment No 16 concerning the identification of the ingredients of generic drugs is in order, as that will promote a more judicious use of them, that is to say, generic substitution. It is a question of using medicinal products rationally and exploiting the price potential of medicines in official drug substitution systems after medicinal product patents expire. Patients’ contributions also go down when they are put on medicines that are similar to, but cheaper than, the original ones.
Promoting the use of generic drugs fully meets with the European Union’s objectives in the areas of policy on medicinal products and public health. These objectives on the other hand include ensuring the supply of medicines that are new and regarded as important in terms of their therapeutic value to the patients that need them. These medicinal products are patent protected and in general expensive. Experience in my country, Finland, and in many others has shown that practice with regard to prescribing medicines does not move sufficiently in the direction of cheaper alternative medicinal products or alternative imported products unless there is guidance in the shape of government action, in other words, legislation. Such guidance comes in the form of
reference price systems, doctors’ own budgets for medicinal products, and generic substitution.
In addition, I should like to thank those of my colleagues responsible for tabling Amendment Nos 95, which obliges manufacturers to guarantee an adequate supply of medicinal products to wholesalers. Restrictions on supplies, as practised by some manufacturers of pharmaceuticals, cause problems for wholesalers of medicinal products and, ultimately, the patient."@en1
|
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples