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High Level Pharmaceutical Forum, Oct 2nd 2008 Brussels, CPME Closing remarks

High Level Pharmaceutical Forum

Oct 2^nd 2008 Brussels

CPME closing remarks

Today sees the conclusion of 3 years of constructive efforts which have clearly shown the added value of a collaborative approach between politicians and stakeholders. CPME welcomes the conclusions and recommendations particularly since the Forum has been able to go beyond a pure competitiveness discussion to explore new fields such as patient autonomy and health literacy, which have been described as related public health issues.

As CPME sees no particular issue keeping it from promoting and disseminating the conclusions of the relative effectiveness and pricing and reimbursement sections and as time is limited, the following comments will focus on the “information to patients” chapter.

From the very beginning of the Forum, the mandate on information to patients on medicines has been extended to information on diseases and treatment options. CPME has always stressed that this scope was an enormous one that would take far more time and resources than planned or proposed by some of the other members of the Forum. This does not mean of course that CPME is opposed to this larger scope on information to patients but CPME simply reiterates it’s opinion that the task might prove to be a lot more complex than expected.

The recommendation and the challenge to invest in high quality and accessible information on diseases and treatment options goes beyond the role of national authorities and should promote European collaboration based on common principles and methodologies. CPME recommends that the necessary investments be made toward this integrated European approach which includes a European information library. Medicine, research and pharmacology being very dynamic subjects and prone to regular re-evaluation and retrospective analysis, these investments will have to be supported on a continuous basis after their initial deployment.

The recommendation to consider using the EU Health Portal in order to raise visibility of “good” information sources is a valid one. CPME would prefer to address this as “validated” and unbiased information rather than “good” information. The validation of information sources and contents will constitute the main challenge, be it through web-sites or other communication channels. This constant validation and revalidation process will request considerable investments over a prolonged period as it has to stay totally independent. CPME also draws attention to the fact that this investment will request high quality expertise and man power and should use existing structures.

CPME welcomes and stresses the recommendation to not simply promote the EMEA to improve and further develop the Eudrapharm database but also to provide the necessary financial base for this effort.

The need to promote health literacy as a policy on EU level will have to base itself on a  bottoms-up approach starting on a national level, based on common European values and principles. Health literacy as such is a long process, which cannot compare to a simple educational development. It reflects policy strategies covering several generations and includes efforts to render access to information equal and easily available, but also efforts to include health literacy in the normal educational process. We should look at strategies being developed to promote healthy lifestyles and nutrition for instance.

The real challenge in promoting health literacy, comparable to the one addressing individual needs of the individual patient for quality information, will be to reach across languages, cultures, education levels, age and technology. The promotion of flashy web sites will not be sufficient to reach this goal.

Health literacy, in the context of autonomy, should not wrongly promote the concept of self-sufficient citizens and patients. CPME stresses the primary role of health professionals for the  citizen or patient who has a need for customized information tailored to meet his individual requests or problems. The Patient-Doctor relationship, which is at the core of the healthcare process, fully supports all efforts to empower the European citizen and patient.

CPME has already started a very collaborative approach on this subject together with Patient organisations and is of course ready to extend this collaboration to other stakeholders.

CPME finally would like to highlight once more its’ full support of the ban on advertising of prescription medicines to the general public. This ban should also cover the indirect promotion of prescription medicine as we have, for instance, recently witnessed in the case of a quite controversial vaccinal product.

No later than Oct 23^rd and 24^th, at its General Assembly, CPME shall promote and distribute the conclusions of the Pharmaforum amongst its national members. CPME shall also participate in the effort to evaluate and feedback results and practical implementations of the FORUM in the future.

CPME would like to thank all participants in this FORUM for a fruitful collaboration and their continued support.