E-drug: Legal innovation from AstraZeneca? (cont'd)
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This is a very important issue and unfortunately not something new.
In the last few years organisations involved in research, technology
assessment and independent drug information have experienced
similar threats. I refer to the case of Bristol-Myers-Squib trying to
prevent the release of a report on statins by the Canadian
Coordinating Office for health Technology Assessment and MSD's
attempt to stop publication of an article on pharmaco-economic
evaluation of Fosamax in The Norwegian Drug Bulletin and the
manufacturer Leiras taking the Finnish Ministry of Health to court for
releasing information on Norplant from the drug registration file.
The companies have not been successful in these cases. But
nevertheless the impact on people involved in drug assessment and
their organisations can be tremendous. So far these legal actions have
taken place in rich countries and it concerned organisations that had
the infrastructure and the finances to put together a defence in court.
But in al cases it has cost a tremendous amount of money and energy
from staff.
This raises the question what is the impact on less affluent
organisations. For many drug bulletins for example that try to survive
on limited budgets it would be the end. Preventative measures may
mean self-censorship. An ironic development in this information age.
Disagreements should be discussed in public, in the scientific press.
This is also the recommendation in the article I recommend to E-drug
readers, that was published in Science earlier this year:
The Courts--A Challenge to Health Technology Assessment
Elina Hemminki, David Hailey, and Meri Koivusalo
Science Jul 9 1999: 203-204.
Ellen 't Hoen LL.M.- International Drug Policy Consultant
e-mail: ethoen@compuserve.com
P.O. Box 15605
1001 NC Amsterdam
The Netherlands
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