Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-01-13-Speech-2-386"
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"en.20090113.29.2-386"2
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"Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, in response to Mrs Corbey’s comments, I would like to say first of all that I gave the go-ahead for a European database of prescription-only medicines several years ago. Work on the database is going well and it will be available in the foreseeable future.
Not only Mrs Corbey but also several other Members of this House have asked the question: is it possible to make a clear distinction between information and advertising? Let me state clearly once again that the Commission is totally opposed to allowing advertising or publicity, or whatever you want to call it, for prescription-only medicines in Europe. We will not permit this under any circumstances. However, I do also have to contradict you when you give the impression that there is no difference between information and advertising. Anyone who says that it is not possible to distinguish between information and advertising is insulting hundreds of thousands of journalists who clearly demonstrate every day in their work in newspapers, on the radio or on television that there is a difference between information and advertising. The regulations which we draw up are so accurate and so precise that there is no question of blurring the lines between information and advertising. The information must be based on data that has already been authorised by the approval authority. It must be authorised before it is published and it is subject to strict quality controls. I really do not understand how anyone could believe that this was advertising.
Mr Schlyter has highlighted the question of vaccines. I must state clearly at this point that vaccines are, of course, not freely available. Vaccines are normally made available to ordinary citizens by the public health authorities in the context of information campaigns which aim to ensure the highest possible vaccination density. That is how things should be, but the difference between information and advertising must, of course, also be taken into account in the case of vaccines. I fully share your opinion in this respect. The issue of counterfeit medicines is unrelated to intellectual property. Fake medicines are not produced as a result of a dispute about intellectual property. The medicines which are being faked have already been approved, which means that any issues of intellectual property have been resolved. Counterfeit medicines are produced for reasons of pure greed. There is no question of violating rights to intellectual property. This is simply a criminal act. At the very least faking medicines involves bodily harm, if not attempted murder, but it has nothing to do with questions of intellectual property.
I would like to draw your attention to statistics produced by the European Medicines Agency which has been investigating the possible effects of improved patient information. In Great Britain, 5% of all the people who are admitted to hospital are there because they have taken the wrong medicine, in other words, a medicine which they are allergic to or which they should not have been given. Of all the patients in hospital in Great Britain, 5% have been hospitalised because they have taken the wrong medicine. We know that in 50% of these cases this could have been avoided if the patient had been informed about the nature of the medicine they received. However, this information was not available to them. I also use this argument in reply to healthcare authorities in the Member States who are not enthusiastic about the prospect of well-informed patients because they believe that well-informed patients are demanding and will ask for more expensive drugs. These statistics show that patient information can even save money.
In answer to Mrs Hennicot-Schoepges’ question about brochures and magazines which are made available free of charge, I do not think that it is possible for European legislators to prevent anyone from distributing free brochures. This happens in several Member States. However, the ban on advertising also applies to these magazines and brochures. I am thinking, for example, of the very well-known publication
in my native country. These publications are not allowed to contain advertising for prescription-only medicines.
I have said something about the grey area, in other words, the surreptitious advertising which you also mentioned. Yes, it does exist. We are familiar with these practices and our proposals are specifically intended to prevent this surreptitious advertising which is found in a number of areas.
As far as the border regions are concerned, the circumstances described are related to the fact that we still essentially have national approval of drugs. European approval is the exception, not the rule. This means that manufacturers have their medicines approved in the different markets in the Member States and no one can prevent them from registering the medicines under different names. This is where the problem lies. If a medicine has European approval, then it is available throughout Europe, including the border regions, under the same brand name.
Mrs Doyle, I do not believe that there is a one-to-one correspondence in the areas which we are discussing between human medicine and veterinary medicine. I think the structures are very different in these cases. For example, animals are not able to find out about medicines themselves. The relationship between demand and availability is quite different. However, I will be very happy to consider this problem further. I would also like to point out that in the case of the question of residues we issued a proposal a long time ago, as you know."@en1
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