REFORM OF BPI FAILS AS GERMAN IND UNITY VANISHES

Efforts to reform the structure of the German pharmaceutical industry organization, the BPI, have failed after some two years of debate. A recommendation to set up a number of specialist bodies representing various sectors of the industry under one roof failed to achieve the required two-thirds majority at an extraordinary general meeting in Cologne.

Only 49 of the 91 delegates voted for the one-roof solution. Those rejecting the proposal said that it would leave the general BPI organization with too little political weight in comparison with the other constitutional bodies.

The individual bodies would set up their own public relations organizations and the BPI, as an umbrella organization, would be left to represent the industry only on themes on which there was consensus.