Belgium's drug industry body celebrates 40 years

The pharma.be (previously the AGIM), Belgium's innovative pharmaceutical industry association has celebrated its 40th anniversary by reflecting on its past achievements and outlining its vision of the future. As part of the events held to commemorate the trade body's formation in 1966, the pharma.be has issued a list of policies it believes are essential to ensure the industry's future well-being.

The first request is for regulatory stability for drug laboratories and for inward investment into Belgium, lowering taxes and respect for intellectual property. The drug association also calls for the new Drug Agency, among other concerns, to offer effective and transparent use of drug industry user fees. The pharma.be also calls for an accelerated mechanism for providing reimbursement for drugs once they have been approved by the European Medicines Agency's (EMEA) Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP), with the aim of speeding up the process by two to four months.

Still on the subject of reimbursement, the pharma.be calls for the government to set set up an overall reimbursement budget, which is both realistic and as far as possible in line with public requirements. The trade body notes that it has cooperated with the government to balance this budget in 2006. Finally, the pharma.be calls for aid to investment in both Wallonia and Flanders, some of it in the form of dispensations from taxes or administrative costs.