Pharmaceuticals

Pharmaceutical Expenditure And Policies

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Across OECD countries, pharmaceutical spending was around US$800 billion in 2013, accounting for about 20{ddf8d179d1bf712bb2a88ff2ad95ebdf63eaa5463c845d2f093b25848387ba96} of total health spending on average (hospital consumption and retail). This paper ‘Pharmaceutical expenditure and policies: past trends and future challenges‘ examines the drivers of recent spending trends, highlighting differences across therapeutic classes. While the consumption of medicines continues to […]

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Information on human medicines

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The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has produced a guide on the information the Agency publishes on centrally and non-centrally authorised medicines for human use. Providing an overview of the range of documents produced by EMA during the life span of a medicine, the guide covers early development, through initial evaluation, adoption of positive or negative

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Endocrine disruptors

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Endocrine disruptors are chemicals which impact on the hormone system of animals and humans. They have three cumulative characteristics: a hormonal function, an adverse effect, and a causality between the two. There has been increasing interest in endocrine disruptors and the European Commission has produced a factsheet that answers some of the most common questions

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Access to affordable medicines

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The European Public Health Alliance (EPHA) strongly supports the President of the EU’s critique of the current over-protection and misuse of intellectual property and related rights for pharmaceuticals, and its goal to better balance the reward for innovation against the assurance of affordability of medicines. Additional market exclusivity, data exclusivity, and supplementary protection certificates (SPCs)

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Polio vaccine switch

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Every country that was using trivalent oral polio vaccine (OPV) (containing all three serotypes of poliovirus) has permanently withdrawn this vaccine and either replaced it with bivalent OPV – containing only types 1 and 3 – or moved to an immunization schedule with only the inactivated form of polio vaccine (IPV). Wild poliovirus type 2

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Health becomes a trade secret

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The European Parliament has approved a new Directive on Trade Secrets which, according to the European Public Health Alliance (EPHA) means that trade secrets will outweigh the public interest. EPHA believes there will be a negative impact on health as information on the safety of medicines will be considered commercially confidential and kept secret from

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Anti-microbial stewardship

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About one third of hospital patients are prescribed antibiotics and up to 50{ddf8d179d1bf712bb2a88ff2ad95ebdf63eaa5463c845d2f093b25848387ba96} of their use is unnecessary or inappropriate.  Whilst some EU countries have made significant strides in the control of drug-resistant infections, overuse and the spread of Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) urgently need to be addressed in others. As drug-resistant infections are not contained

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Orphan medicinal products

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The European Commission has published an inventory of Union and Member State incentives to support research into, and the development and availability of, orphan medicinal products. To date, the Commission has authorised 117 orphan medicines for the benefit of patients suffering from rare diseases, 82{ddf8d179d1bf712bb2a88ff2ad95ebdf63eaa5463c845d2f093b25848387ba96} of which are new active substances. Around 25 of the

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Priority medicines

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The European Medicines Agency has launched the PRIME (PRIority MEdicines) scheme, which offers early, proactive and enhanced support to medicine developers to optimise the production of robust data on a medicine’s benefits and risks and enable accelerated assessment. To support earlier access to patients, the Commission has shortened the timeframe for adopting decisions that authorise

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