EU reshuffle has health potential
BMJ 2010; 340 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.c382 (Published 20 January 2010) Cite this as: BMJ 2010;340:c382
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The recent reallocation of European Commission department roles
should be of great interest to clinicians in the UK. Until recently, the
responsibility for the pharmaceutical industry has fallen under the remit
of the Directorate of Enterprise. With this, the European Commission
acknowledged that governments may often prioritise the business of
pharmaceuticals over the health benefits provided by medicines. However,
the recent announcement that the Directorate of Health (DG Sanco) will
imminently be responsible for the pharmaceutical industry suggests that
the European Commission are now prioritising the health benefits that can
be derived from these medicines.
Furthermore, John Dalli, the new head of the Directorate of Health,
expressed concerns that the Commission�fs proposal �gInformation to
Patients�h may conflict with the interests of patients. �gInformation to
Patients�h proposes that pharmaceutical companies should be able to provide
information directly to patients. This proposal is seen by many as an
uncomfortable step towards direct-to-consumer advertising, which has been
shown to increase prescription and thus the cost to the health service[1].
Furthermore, there is concern that direct-to-consumer advertising leads to
disease mongering and inapproapriate use of medications that may cause
more harm than benefit[2].
We are UK based members and supporters of Healthy Skepticism, an
international group aiming to improve health by reducing harm from
misleading health information. We are hopeful that this statement against
the European Commission proposal of "information to patients" is a move
towards prioritising the health of the population of UK and the rest of
Europe.
[1] Mintzes, B. Barer, ML. Kravitz, RL. Kazanjian, AT. Bassett, K.
Lexchin, J. Evans, RG. Pan, R. Marion, SA. Influence of direct to consumer
pharmaceutical advertising and patientsʹ requests on prescribing
decisions: two site cross sectional survey. BMJ 2002;324:278�]279.
[2] Moynihan R, Heath I, Henry D. Selling sickness: the pharmaceutical
industry and disease mongering. BMJ 2002;324:886-91.
Competing interests:
Authors are members of Healthy Skepticism.
Competing interests: No competing interests
European medicines’ policy where it belongs
Last November, Health Action International (Europe) welcomed the long
-awaited move of the pharmaceutical products and medical devices portfolio
to DG Health & Consumer Affairs (SANCO). As Commissioner Dalli takes
office, we hope that he brings with him the will to start a new chapter
for the European Commission and focus DG SANCO’s pharmaceutical policies
wholeheartedly on those that are directly affected: European patients and
consumers of medicines.
It is undeniably in the interests of public health to have full
disclosure of all data concerned with the safety and effectiveness of
medicines, and so we support Professor Garattini’s appeals for increased
transparency at the European Medicines Agency. We also agree with Elias
Mossialos’ call for a system of comparative evaluation for new marketing
authorisations in order to reward real innovation (therapeutic progress),
with the caveat that this system should apply the precautionary principle
of ensuring that the benefits of authorised medicines outweigh their
potential for harm.
With regards to the pharmaceuticals package, Commissioner Dalli would
do well to discard the ever-contentious ‘Information to Patients’ proposal
and make a clean start with a real assessment (both quantitative and
qualitative) of the information needs of European citizens on prescription
-only medicines.
A new chapter, and an opportunity to renew faith in European
medicines’ policy, which will depend more and more on the ability of all
public health stakeholders to demonstrate independence. We hope that DG
SANCO will proactively support ‘interest-free’ pharmaceutical policymaking
in Europe by strengthening transparency of ‘declarations of interest’ in
order to promote independence from commercial interests.
Competing interests:
None declared
Competing interests: No competing interests