EGA Press Release

Friday, 29 September 2006

EGA SUPPORTS SUSTAINABILITY AND INNOVATION AT PHARMA FORUM

Speaking today at the second session of the EU Pharmaceutical Forum, Emile Loof, President of the European Generic medicines Association, underscored the critical role of generic medicines in sustaining healthcare provision and in stimulating innovation of life-saving therapies.

Mr Loof explained to his audience of European decision-makers and key industry and healthcare stakeholders that the generics industry provides patients with equitable access to affordable medicines, and in so doing, helps governments build and maintain sustainable healthcare systems for a rapidly ageing European population.

In addition, Mr Loof continued, the competition from low-cost generic equivalents to expensive originator products once they are off-patent encourages the pharmaceutical industry to renew their product portfolios by researching and developing new products to tackle persistent healthcare problems. It is precisely the savings from generics that will allow governments to pay for the costly new medicines.

Providing savings to governments is of fundamental importance to the EGA, as this helps to ensure that patients will indeed have access to the new therapies. Currently, countries are still missing out on 10s of millions of euros in potential savings to their healthcare systems every year by not taking full advantage of lower-priced generic medicines. The recent study by Professor Dr. Steven Simoens of the University of Leuven (Belgium) asserts that savings of 27% to 48% could be attained if Member States introduced the appropriate measures to promote generic prescribing and dispensing.

Eliminating the many hurdles generics face when trying to enter European markets is key to realising these savings. Hurdles are most significantly felt in the form of unreasonable time delays for obtaining pricing and reimbursement decisions for approved generic products, and the increasing complexity of regulatory requirements. In addition, many Member States simply fail to implement key policy measures. The Simoens Report clearly indicates that a coherent mixture of supply and demand-side measures are urgently needed in the Member States, where, in a few countries, generics make up 50% to 70% of the volume of medicines used, but with many others trailing along at less than 10%.

The EGA firmly supports and works to encourage true innovation — innovation that brings verified added clinical value to patients through an increase in the patient's quality of life and through increased accessibility to treatments at affordable levels of co-payment. The EGA fully supports making accurate, reliable and independent information on treatments options and disease areas available to patients through easily accessible means. But this information must indeed be independent, and delivered with guarantees that it does not become a subtle — or not so subtle — form of advertising as in other parts of the world.

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