Oxfam Novib and Health Action International call on the Dutch Government to launch an immediate inquiry on the interception of a shipment of generic medicines by the Dutch customs authorities. The seizure of this shipment, in transit from India to Brazil, undermines the free trade of goods and contradicts international public health policies, which have been strongly endorsed by the Dutch government. Read full text. Also available in Dutch.

As DG Enterprise’s pharmaceuticals package came up for discussion at the college of Commissioners, all eyes were on the contentious proposal on ‘information to patients’ that is undoubtedly a relaxation on regulations for direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA) of prescription-only medicines in Europe.
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High medicine prices and poor availability: So much evidence but where is the action?

Millions of people in low- and middle-income countries cannot afford or obtain the medicines they need. These are the sobering findings of an analysis by Alexandra Cameron and others published in today’s Lancet. “This analysis provides firm evidence of the dismal situation people with illnesses face every day” said Margaret Ewen, HAI’s coordinator of the WHO/HAI Project on Medicine Prices and Availability. “It’s shocking that many important medicines are so hard to find in government outlets, and so expensive in private pharmacies. How are people expected to pay days or, in some cases, weeks of their salary each month to buy the treatments they need?”
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Commission's Pharma Competition Report: Litigation instead of Innovation

Today's preliminary report from DG Competition highlighted a number of disturbing trends in the pharmaceutical sector that are linked to the delay of market access for more affordable generic medicines within the European Union. The report estimates that these actions inflated expenditure for EU health systems by approximately 3 billion euros between 2000 and 2007.
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Anti-counterfeit or anti-generics?
The Kenyan Anti-Counterfeit Bill 2008

In many countries, generic medicines are the first line therapy of choice and are an accessible and inexpensive source of quality pharmaceuticals. But, their value has been seriously undermined by the mistaken belief that generic medicines are, somehow, inferior to their brand-name equivalents. This mistaken logic is advantageous to large pharmaceutical companies that manufacture originator brands, but it is especially damaging when it prevents.
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New UN Report: Millennium development
Goal 8.E
Essential medicines: the high price of health

Halfway to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), essential medicines are more costly and less available than necessary, especially in developing countries. This new data on medicines access and pricing is contained in a report released by the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today in New York.
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HAI response to the Access to Medicines Index
Scratching the surface of Corporate Social Responsibility

The Access to Medicines Foundation’s new index turns out to be less groundbreaking and more of a mild tremor. The index set out to be a transparent, quantifiable comparison of corporate social responsibility (CSR) for twenty pharmaceutical companies. What we have is an attractive new business tool for big pharma. The index has taken a ‘strictly business’ approach to measuring access to essential medicines, presenting data collected from the giant pharmaceutical companies while overlooking crucial information from end-users and local consumers–patients in developing countries.
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A series of public health disasters (from thalidomide in the 1960s to rofecoxib (Vioxx°) at the beginning of
this century) have served to remind us that effective pharmacovigilance is crucial for the protection of citizens.
Regrettably, the European Commission’s proposed legislative changes, published on 5 December 2007, pose a
serious threat to public health (1).

For more information, please read the press release

At a recent HAI Europe Open Seminar , ‘Ensuring Independent Medicines Information in Europe’, a representative of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries’ Associations (EFPIA) Dr. Scott Ratzan said that his organization would be interested in revisiting Article 88 of Directive 2001/83/EC, which regulates the advertising of prescription drugs in Europe. At the same event, Christian Siebert, Head of the Pharmaceuticals Unit of the European Commission remained silent when asked by an audience member whether a proposal for legislative change was pending or being planned.

For all the Open Seminar presentations, click here

EMEA implementation of transparency regulations called into question

11th October 2006 – A broad definition of commercial confidentiality is the key barrier to public access to information on the safety and effectiveness of medicines, leaving European citizens at greater risk for otherwise preventable harm.

For more information, please read the press release

Direct-to-consumer advertising revisited by European commission, “Déjà-vu all over again”?

The proposal to weaken the EU’s ban on advertising prescription-only medicines to the public was overwhelmingly rejected by the European Parliament in 2004. Yet, only two years later the European Commission “openly regrets” this decision and calls for a reform of the European pharmaceutical products’ legislation. HAI Europe deplores this move to reopen the direct-to-consumer advertising debate.

For more information, please read the press release

HAI Europe responds to EU Pharmaceutical Forum initiative: is this advertising disguised as health information?

Health Action International Europe (HAI-E), the International Society of Drug Bulletins (ISDB), the Association Internationale de la Mutualité (AIM), the Bureau Européen des Unions de Consommateurs (BEUC), and the Medicines in Europe Forum (MiEF) have endorsed a joint declaration on the provision of relevant health information to citizens, to be presented on the occasion of the meeting of the European’s Commission Pharmaceutical Forum.

For more information, please read the press release or download the declaration.