E-DRUG: Council of Europe calls industry to respond more effectively to public health needs
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Dear all,
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has massively voted yesterday in favour of a report/resolution entitled "Public health and the interests of the pharmaceutical industry: how to guarantee the primacy of public health interests?" (118 in favour, 8 against, 7 abstentions).
The final resolution can be found here
http://www.ip-watch.org/2015/10/01/council-of-europe-issues-resolution-questions-current-ip-system-for-pharmaceutical-products/
with the explanatory memorandum by the Rapporteur.
Among the calls on the Council of Europe's members states (47 countries) contained in the resolution:
* oblige companies to ensure absolute transparency regarding the real costs of R&D
* adopt a stricter marketing authorisation policy (criteria of added therapeutic value, "need clause", ...)
* mandatory publishing of the results of all clinical tests on new medicines
* recourse, where necessary, to mandatory licenses to ensure that medicines whose effectiveness has been established remain on the market
* excluding those with a conflict of interest from sensitive decision-making, absolute transparency regarding linked interests of experts working with health authorities, obligation on pharmaceutical companies to declare linked interests with all health sector players
* mandatory levy on promotional activities of the pharmaceutical industry and use it, inter alia, to finance a public fund to be used for the independent training of health-care professionals
* introduce strict regulations governing the movement from a position in the public sector to one in the private sector (and vice versa)
* increase funding of patients' associations from public funds
* prohibit any agreement which aims to delay, for no medical justification, the marketing of generic medicines
* impose dissuasive fines of a percentage of their turnover for any illegality carried out by drug companies
* set up a public fund to finance independent research geared to unmet health needs, including in the field of rare and paediatric diseases
* calls on the WHO to put forward alternatives to the current patent-based model for developing drugs
The debates can still be followed on the webcast
<http://clients.dbee.com/coe/webcast/index.php?id=20150929-1&lang=en&ch=4>
in French or English for those who are interested.
There are also (provisional) verbatim records
<http://assembly.coe.int/Documents/Records/2015/E/1509291000E.htm> if you prefer.
Best wishes
Patrick Durisch
Responsable Programme Santé - Health Programme Coordinator
Déclaration de Berne - Berne Declaration
Av. Charles-Dickens 4, CH - 1006 Lausanne
Tel. direct : +41 21 620 03 06 |
e-mail : durisch@ladb.ch