EU Commission to ease patient info regs, but "is not introducing Rx drug

Stressing that direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription drugs isnot being introduced in Europe, the European Commission has announced moves to improve the availability of information on authorized prescription drugs, when patients request it, either individually or in groups.

Making the announcement on July 18 as part of of the Commission's review of European Union pharmaceutical legislation (see also page 10), Erkki Liikanen, the European Commissioner responsible for Enterprise and the Information Society, said that a five-year pilot system is to be introduced aimed at ensuring the availability of patient-oriented and validated information on authorized prescription drugs to treat AIDS, diabetes and asthma.

The diseases chosen for the pilot system are all long-term and chronic, and for which there is a strong and specific patient demand for information, Commissioner Liikanen told reporters in Brussels, Belgium. The types of drugs which are used to treat these diseases are the same throughout Europe, and the results of the pilot study should be relatively easy to monitor within their patient populations.