EU OTC Pharma Market To Be Deregulated

Competition is to be introduced into the over-the-counter drugs marketin the European Union, the second Frankfurt Round Table on Completing the Single Pharmaceutical Market, held in Germany last week, agreed.

The meeting, convened by European Commissioner for Industrial Affairs, Information and Telecommunications Technology Martin Bangemann, between EU member states, Commission officials and the industry, agreed this step as a first move in dealing with the issue of how to provide affordable access to medicines for EU consumers while at the same time ensuring sufficient R&D funding for the industry.

Dr Bangemann said that initial steps towards implementing this move could take place as early as first-half 1998, although he cautioned that "we are still some way off from a consensus about the solutions to the issues" under discussion. These included parallel imports, a problem which the industry believes will only get worse when the EU is enlarged to include a further 12, mainly eastern European, nations.