Kirill M. Stafrace | Wednesday, 07 January 2009

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Kirill Micallef Stafrace

With the persistent and repeated procrastination of the government in the payments to the local and international pharmaceutics importers, the importance of a safe and accessible supply of medicinals and the sustainability of the local pharmaceutical businesses has once again come under the spotlight.
The pharmaceutical sector is of major importance for Europe. It provides an important contribution through the availability of medicines, employment and economic growth of a number of European countries, Malta included. Within the sphere of the EU, the pharmaceutical industry employs over 600,000 people and around 17% of the EU Research and Development funding is allocated to this sector.
The ever changing global market and obvious inequalities between various EU countries has led the European Commission to forward a package that tackles certain issues within this important sector, among which:
• The growing concern regarding the deteriorating situation of counterfeit and illegal medicines. This has local ramifications since a large number of patients are being deprived of their free medicines entitlement and they are left with no choice but to buy. This comes at a substantial personal financial expense leading a number of people to acquire their medicines or those of their relatives and friends via the internet. Here counterfeit and illegal medicines abound and there is little regulation of the sector. However, the overall principle of the EC proposal is to protect the legal distribution chain from the infiltration of fake medicines, therefore ensuring confidence of distributors, health care professionals and patients in the medicinal products they trade, prescribe and purchase legally.
• Patient access to quality information on prescription only medicines is currently rather limited. The time when a patient or relative is just told how to take a drug is over. It is their right to know exactly what they are taking and why. It is the duty of the prescribing and dispensing health professional to educate them on the subject and to answer any queries they might have. This might sound obvious but sometimes it is the obvious that is missed. The amount of misinformation is astounding. The patient will thus be empowered to make more informed decisions about their health. A patient has a right to be educated, what they do with this knowledge is then up to them.
• Improving the safety monitoring, ‘pharmacovigilence’, of medicines. Hence there will be increased obligations for all parties to monitor the safety issues of all medicines and to inform whenever an adverse reaction occurs. This will lead to a greater product safety which should be translated into better health of the individuals. There is already a system in place that aims to monitor the safety profile of medicines in circulation. However, the current system is rather complex and this proposal aims to simplify matters.
These proposals and others are to be forwarded to the European Parliament and the Council for further discussion. The European pharmaceutical sector needs a boost and further cooperation with other countries and continents is required if this is to be achieved. As European Commission Vice President Gunter Verheusen said:
“Everything we are suggesting today builds on the needs and interests of patients. European citizens should benefit from safe, innovative and accessible medicines. They should be best informed about available medicines and treatments – since their health is at stake. We wish to restore the EU's traditional role as the pharmacy of the world. ”

kmicallefstafrace@gmail.com

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