Progress on EU Information to Patients Directive welcomed by advocacy group, but still leaves problems

The non-governmental organization European Public Health Alliance (EPHA) has expressed skepticism about the European Commission revised proposal on Information to Patients, which looks at different ways of providing information on prescription medicines and the role of the pharmaceutical industry in providing such information on their products directly to consumers (The Pharma Letter October 12). The public health community cautiously welcomes this controversial and long awaited proposal, the EPHA said.

“The previous proposal was just a disguised way of giving pharmaceutical companies enough flexibility to promote their products directly to the public, in order to boost the sector’s growth. EPHA welcomes the new tone of the proposal which has taken the public health perspective on board. We congratulate Commissioner Dalli for producing a revised version of the proposal. However we remain cautious of the man derogations and hope that this is resolved in discussions with the European Parliament and the Council,” stated Monika Kosinska, secretary general of the EPHA.