EU to study pharma competitiveness

The European Commission has set up a stakeholders' group to work on anew agenda to improve the framework of pharmaceutical industry competitiveness and "harness (the industry's) power to deliver on Europe's health goals." This follows the Commission's pledge at the December 2000 Competitiveness Round Table meeting (Marketletters passim) to work with a wide range of leading players to define key objectives that reconcile the needs of industry and patients.

The stakeholders will meet three times over the coming year to take stock of progress and suggest solutions to problems as and when they arise. They will report to Commission President Romano Prodi in April 2002. The group will include Erkki Liikanen, European Commissioner for Enterprise and Information Society, who said he hoped the panel will be able to agree on policy approaches that do not necessarily require the Commission to take legislative action.

The other members are: David Byrne, EU Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection; German Health Minister Ulla Schmidt; UK Health Minister Lord Philip Hunt; Lars Rekke, Swedish Minister for Industry, Employment and Communications; Jose Miguel Boquinhas, Spanish Secretary of State for Health; Angela Coulter, chief executive of the Picker Institute; Jean-Francois Dehecq, president and chief executive, Sanofi-Synthelabo and president of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industry Associations; Andrew Kay, chief executive of APS Berk and chairman of the European Generic medicines Association; Alessandro Banchi, Boehringer Ingelheim board member and president of the Association of the European Self-Medication Industry (AESGP); Chris Viehbacher, European chairman at GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals; and Ueli Muller, president, International Association of Mutualities.