AESGP "GETTING THE BALANCE RIGHT"

The European Proprietary Medicines Manufacturers Association (AESGP) has played a positive role in European Union measures being adopted to create conditions which will lead to the establishing of an internal market in medicines, Thomas Sackville, Under Secretary at the UK Department of Health told delegates at the AESGP's 30th annual conference in London last week.

The decision to base the new European Medicines Evaluation Agency in London was also welcomed, and Mr Sackville said that its success will be a long-term benefit to all the people of Europe. Britain, he added, has a huge strength in pharmaceuticals, which the EMEA will build upon. He said the government has cooperated with the pharmaceutical industry in getting individuals to take care of their own health and sensible self-medication readily lends itself to this philosophy.

Another example of the working partnership (especially with the Proprietary Association of Great Britain), he said, is the joint working party set up under the chairmanship of the Medicines Control Agency to look at ways of streamlining the existing methods of moving medicines from prescription control to community pharmacy availability. Last year, he noted, saw the introduction of a more user-friendly procedure for making Prescription-only changes.