EU Industry Policy Developments

The European Parliament and the Council of Ministers of the European Union have now adopted Resolutions on outlines for an industrial policy for the EU pharmaceutical sector.

The Council Resolution was formally adopted on April 23. It states that, concerning the internal market, the Commission and the member states should look at the situation of producers of nonprescription drugs and preparations obtained from medicinal plants, and investigate "the appropriateness of tightening the common classification system in Directive 92/ 26/EEC," which distinguishes between prescription and non-prescription drugs.

The Parliament's final text, adopted April 16, says responsible self-medication is "in line with the orientations for health policy as defined by the European institutions in recent years," and should be further promoted. This would foster EU citizens' "growing desire" to take responsibility for their own health and help reduce health spending. "As part of the process of improving the legal environment for non-prescription medicines, it will be important to establish more transparent procedures which define the method by which prescription medicines can be transferred to non-prescription status," it says.