Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-07-01-Speech-2-144"
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"en.20030701.6.2-144"2
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".
Mr President, I am delighted to be able to announce to you that, earlier today, the Commission adopted a communication on the G10 Medicines initiative.
Developing a competitive European-based industry takes us back to the origins of G10. We examine ways of improving access to innovative medicines and the need to speed up national negotiations on reimbursement and pricing, greater price competition for medicines that are not part of the state sector and measures to develop competitive generic and non-prescription markets.
With regard to strengthening the EU Science Base: if we fail to support innovation we will pay a heavy economic, social and public health price. We look at ways we can develop incentives for research, including the use of virtual institutes for health to stimulate and organise health and biotechnology research and development. We also link in to the many initiatives under the Commission’s existing Sixth Framework Programme.
As for medicines in an enlarged Union, with the forthcoming enlargement the Union is facing one of its greatest challenges and opportunities. We look at ways of meeting the challenge through providing a level playing field for intellectual property protection and providing support for the new Member States to implement the new legislative framework.
As regards Member States learning from each other, benchmarking will provide a practical mechanism for monitoring the implementation of the recommendations, as well as providing a forum for Member States to share best practice.
So, what is the driving force for implementing the proposals in the communication? The main driving force will be the pharmaceutical review supported by the Life Sciences and Biotechnology Action Plan and the Public Health Programme. You will be well aware of these, and the Pharmaceutical Review will obviously have its second reading in the autumn.
However, the unique aspect of G10 is the vehicle it provided to look at areas of national competence that have an impact on competitiveness and public health. There is only so much we can achieve at European level.
In the communication we set out areas where we believe that a European reflection could benefit Member States as well as helping to achieve our G10 goals. In particular, we propose an examination of national pricing and reimbursement systems. Although this is clearly within the competence of Member States we believe that the injection of more market measures, while ensuring national safeguards to control expenditure on pharmaceuticals, could bring benefits to patients and the industry in terms of quicker access to the markets.
Overall, I believe the communication, together with the other initiatives I have mentioned, provides a framework for turning around the competitiveness of our pharmaceutical industry while reinforcing European public health.
For those of you who are not familiar with G10, I would like to briefly explain the background to this initiative.
In recent years there has been growing evidence that the European-based pharmaceutical industry was losing competitiveness compared with its American-based counterparts. This is not only serious for our economy but of vital importance to public health and, especially, European patients. Millions of Europeans use medicines everyday.
Achieving real and long-lasting benefits to patients is a key objective of pharmaceutical policy. We must support Member States to make authorised medicines, especially the newer and more innovative ones, available and affordable to all those who need them as quickly as possible. However, some of the statistics concerning the industry make difficult reading; those pertaining to research and development, for example: critical to our industry, to our science base and to our patients.
In 1990 Europe was the world leader in pharmaceutical research and development and innovation. Now the US has overtaken Europe in the discovery of new chemical or biological entities. This has not happened by chance. Since 1990, research and development expenditure in the US has grown at a dramatic rate. Between 1990 and 2000, research and development expenditure grew at twice the rate in the US compared with Europe. By 1997 America had overtaken Europe in terms of total research and development expenditure. G10 medicines were born out of this background.
In recognition of the critical role the industry plays in both the industrial and health sectors, Commissioner Byrne and I established the High Level Group on Innovation and the Provision of Medicines – G10 Medicines. It is a small Group of high-level representatives from Member States, industry, mutual health funds and patients.
The group was given the challenging remit of reaching consensus on ways of improving the competitiveness of the pharmaceutical industry in the context of achieving social and public health objectives. To many people’s surprise, the group was able to report back in May last year, with 14 wide-ranging recommendations.
In the communication adopted today we set out how we plan to take these recommendations forward. There are five broad themes we pursue in the communication which we intend to take forward in parallel.
Benefits to patients are at the heart of G10. We will look at ways of improving patient information on medicines, strengthening the role of patients in public health decision-making and so forth. I am sure that in that area my colleague Mr Byrne will say more."@en1
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