Bangemann Puts Accent On Telecom For Drug Industry

European Commissioner Martin Bangemann has told European pharmaceutical industry executives in Brussels that they should be devoting more attention to the impact of new information technology on the health care sector. Speaking at a reception organized by the European non-prescription medicines sector association, the AESGP, he said "the information society will provide better solutions for problems of today, including in the field of health care."

The Commissioner, who has been the sponsor of a top-level group of IT industrialists responsible for the call for accelerated liberalization of the telecom sector in Europe, told drug company managers that the impending telecommunications revolution was of enormous significance for the pharmaceutical sector, "because a direct communication 'network of networks' will link physicians, hospitals and social centers on a European scale."

It will change a number of key health care relationships, he added, between patients and health professionals by improvement in diagnosis through on-line access to European specialists; between the pharmaceutical industry and the regulatory authorities by tighter cost control and cost savings in health care spending; and between national regulatory authorities, the new European Medicines Evaluation Agency and the European Commission by intensifying the exchange of data and documents.