JUNE 2002 JUNE
T RANSLATED FROM LA REVUE P RESCRIRE Reorienting European Medicines Policy
Background for human use are changed to suit the best interests of industry. European regulations on medicinal Its overriding objective is to make the products, adopted during the 1960s and European market even more permissive, 1970s, have had a major positive impact with permanent marketing authorisations in European Member States. In particular, granted more rapidly and more easily, they have obliged national policy-makers with no need to show therapeutic to create effective drug control and moni- advance; no regular postmarketing reap- toring infrastructures designed to improve praisal of the risk-benefit ratio; no public health care quality and patient safety, and explanation of EMEA decisions; no com- also to stimulate healthy competition parative assessments on which to fix among drug manufacturers. prices more reasonably; and direct-to- The European Medicines Evaluation consumer advertising of prescription-only Agency (EMEA) was created in response drugs under the guise of "information". to the call for greater European integra- We are publishing a series of documents Contents tion. More resources and more indepen- and reviews on current European phar- dence were expected to bring greater maceutical policy, aimed at helping indi- •Background ...... 1 transparency and harmonisation. vidual citizens and policy-makers to reach •A call to national and European policy-makers ...... 2-3 But, discreetly, by a thousand cuts, well-founded conclusions. EMEA has been driven away from its pri- Among these papers you’ll find a •Editorial: A free hand ...... 4 mary mission as a safeguard of European detailed description of the European •Pharmaceutical policy citizens’ health. The pharmaceutical Medicines Evaluation Agency (EMEA) is now decided at the European level ...... 5-7 industry now has its foot firmly in the website, notably underlining its fake door. •European pharmaceutical transparency. policy is turning its back Strangely, EMEA is part of the We offer a description of the instru- on public health ...... 8-10 Enterprise Directorate General rather than ments and institutions of European •An industry-serving the Health and Consumer Protection pharmaceutical policy, and a review of the pharmaceutical policy .....11-13 Directorate of the European Commission. current activity of EMEA, the cornerstone •Towards a medicines policy It now receives most of its funds directly of the system. We identify a number of that supports basic public from the drug companies. The administra- strong points and institutions that should health needs ...... 14-15 tive open door known as the mutual be maintained, but we also identify strate- •Internet ...... 16-20 recognition procedure has been institu- - Drugs agencies have a duty to gies that are being used to drive the inform tionalised and a shroud of secrecy has system away from its primary objective: - EMEA: fake transparency descended. The European pharmacovigi- public health. - FDA: an example of transparency lance system has not fully materialised, We also report on the proposals of - FDA MedWatch and most of the data obtained in this field Directive and Regulation of the European President: Jacques Juillard have remained in a black box. Commission Enterprise Directorate (on Ever more pressing, the pharmaceutical behalf of a pharmaceutical lobby group), Address: Prescrire International lobby, supported (and sometimes preced- and the positions of various patient and BP 459 – ed) by the Enterprise Directorate, has consumer organisations and professional (F) 75527 Paris Cedex 11 been making strenuous efforts to ensure bodies. E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.prescrire.org that the European Directive on medicines ©PI
P RESCRIRE I NTERNATIONAL - E UROPEAN M EDICINES P OLICY • 1 A CALL TO NATIONAL AND EUROPEAN POLICY-MAKERS Putting european drugs policy back on tracks
It is vital to restore European pharmaceutical policy to its rightful public health context, for the individual and collective benefit of European citizens, by restoring independence and transparency throughout the system. If the pharmaceutical industry is to remain dynamic and efficient in the long term, it must be actively re-directed towards true public health needs and therapeutic advance, both in Europe and throughout the world. We call on members of the European Parliament, ministers of the Council of Europe, and European Commissioners to reconsider the policies outlined in the draft Directive and Regulation on medicinal drugs prepared by the European Commission’s Enterprise Directorate. In the interests of public health, we call them to adopt new priorities.
Our demands are the following: Free access to scientific data. Drug-related matters must not be an exception to the obligation of transparency in national and Public health before industry. Medications being a cor- European institutions. Indeed, this information is required to nerstone of any health policy, national and European regulatory ensure optimal use of drug therapy prescribed to European citizens. bodies charged with authorising new drugs and postmarketing It is also a moral duty to render public the results of clinical surveillance must be directly accountable to national and EU research in which thousands of citizens volunteer to participate. health authorities. Thus, Thus, • National and European medicines agencies must be re- • European Union health ministers, and not industry organised to ensure that the public and health profession- ministers, must, in conjunction with the European als have access to detailed and referenced reports of the Parliament, decide European pharmaceutical policy and scientific information on which their decisions are based, all relevant Directives and Regulations; whether positive or negative. This must apply not only to • The European Medicines Evaluation Agency (EMEA) national, centralised and mutual recognition procedures, must become part of the Health and Consumer Protection but also to postmarketing data (pharmacovigilance, com- Directorate General instead of the Enterprise Directorate parative studies of drug benefits, drug errors, etc.). General. Universal and strict centralised procedure. The mea- Financial independence. Given the massive economic sures taken since 1995 to harmonise and concentrate resources stakes, it is essential that the structures and personnel charged through the creation of the European Medicines Evaluation with drug registration and control be financially independent Agency (EMEA) and the European centralised marketing autho- from pharmaceutical companies. risation procedure must be continued and amplified. Thus, Thus, • The budgets of EC Member States and of the European • The mutual recognition procedure must be phased out Union itself must rapidly be increased to cover the full oper- as rapidly as possible, in favour of an efficient and trans- ating costs of national and European medicines agencies; parent centralised procedure for all drugs intended to be • Fees paid by drug companies for marketing applications marketed in more than one European Union Member must be attributed to Member State and EU coffers, and State; not directly to the medicines agencies concerned, in order • The European Medicines Evaluation Agency budget to avoid conflicts of interest; must be considerably increased, so that this cornerstone • These fees must be re-adjusted in such a way as to of European pharmaceutical policy has the means to ful- encourage manufacturers to choose the European cen- fil its responsibilities in terms of expertise, independence, tralised marketing procedure for products they wish to transparency and surveillance; sell throughout the European Union; • The time allocated to examine marketing applications • All conflicts of interest of agency personnel and out- (both national and European) must not be systematically side experts must be declared regularly, accessible on shortened. Agencies must have the time necessary for the Internet, and be taken into account in practice. thorough critical assessment of these applications, with
2 • P RESCRIRE I NTERNATIONAL - E UROPEAN M EDICINES P OLICY the overriding aim of protecting patients. This time should only be shortened in strictly defined situations involving Reference documents serious diseases for which no treatment is available; • Periodic re-examination of marketing authorisations, both national and European, must be strengthened and The following documents are essential for a thorough understan- actually applied. This re-assessment must focus not only ding of the current debate on European medicines policy. on efficacy and side effects, but also on the overall value of individual drugs in light of new data and new thera- • “The ISDB Declaration on Therapeutic Advance in the Use of peutic options (drug and non drug). Medicines” Paris, 15-16 November 2001. The Declaration puts patients’ needs at the forefront, and separates real advance from Quality information for rational use. Rational drug use, mere “innovation”. especially the prevention of side effects and medication errors, Available in several languages on the ISDB website: www.isdbweb.org requires that citizens and health professionals be adequately informed. • “Helsinki Declaration: Ethical Principles for Medical Research Thus, Involving Human Subjects” World Medical Association 2000 edition. • National and European authorities must take all the News treatments must be assessed in comparison with reference necessary measures to ensure that European citizens and options (whenever available) rather than against placebo. health professionals have access to reliable information. Available on the ISDB website: www.isdbweb.org That means information independent of drug companies, well documented and referenced, comparative, and • “Uppsala Declaration: Statement of The International Working designed in transparent manner, on diseases and available group on Transparency and Accountability in Drug Regulation” treatments, together with preventive, diagnostic and (1996), by Health Action International and Dag Hammarskjöld screening tools, and their correct use; Swedish Foundation, Uppsala, 11-14 September 1996. How to tack- • International nonproprietary names rather than trade le obstacles to transparency and public control of official measures names must be adopted as the main medicine identifiers involving medicines. throughout the European Union, by regulators, patients Available on the ISDB website: www.isdbweb.org and health professionals; • Drug companies must be strongly encouraged to • “Erice Declaration: On Communicating Drug Safety Information” improve the information in patient leaflets and on drug (1997), by (among other parties) the Uppsala Monitoring Centre on packaging; adverse drug reactions, under the aegis of the World Health • Drug advertising must be tightly regulated in all Organisation (WHO). What regulatory authorities should do to Member States: advertisements for non prescription drugs carry out their mission in terms of information to professionals and must be approved before their release; direct-to-consumer the public? advertising of prescription-only drugs must be banned; Available on the ISDB website: www.isdbweb.org advertisements targeting health professionals must be controlled retrospectively; and effective sanctions must be • “Penser et prescrire en DCI: une bonne pratique professionnelle” applied rapidly to all offenders. (la revue Prescrire n° 209);“Les médicaments génériques”. Prescribing and dispensing medicines under international nonproprietary names Transparency in drug cost. Drugs can serve a public-health (INN) or generic names is a first step towards rational use of drugs. oriented policy only if they are universally accessible and if their Available in French only, on request. prices are compatible with health budgets. Thus, in order to deal with the current spectacular • “Prix des médicaments remboursables: quelle logique ?” la revue increase in drug prices, Prescrire n° 222 and 233. • National and European policy-makers must undertake Available in French only, on request. strict studies of drug production costs, and particularly the true cost of biomedical research and development; • The European Union, and its individual Member States, must create adequately funded bodies capable of sponsor- ing, co-ordinating and stimulating clinical research aimed at answering the numerous questions that are left pend- ing by industry-sponsored studies; • They must also create institutional structures designed to provide patients, health professionals, organisations paying for medicines with clear, synthetic, referenced, up- to-date comparative drug information on which to base rational choices among available therapeutic options.
Several years of sustained effort are required. ©PI
P RESCRIRE I NTERNATIONAL - E UROPEAN M EDICINES P OLICY • 3 Translated from Rev Prescr June 2002; 22 (229): 401
A free hand
In this supplement we review the performance of the European Medicines Evaluation Agency (EMEA), and the European drugs policy. Time is pressing, as draft Directive and Regulation will be submitted for adoption by the European Parliament and the Council. These drafts are prepared and sponsored by Enterprise Directorate of the European Commission, on which EMEA has so far depended. We believe, like many other independent observers, that EMEA’s performance is not that good. And things may get even worse over the next seven years if the current drafts, which are supported by a pow- erful industrial lobby, are adopted. Some hold that the European community is a technocratic juggernaut that disregards its own citizens' interests and stifles national vitality. We believe this is far from the truth. On the contrary, harmonisa- tion is an effective way of optimising scientific and human resources, and European institutions are not ill-designed and sclerotic, but open to public influence. Editorial The real problem is one of public apathy: who, apart from drug com- panies, is monitoring, and trying to influence, European pharmaceu- tical policy? So it is hardly surprising that this policy is increasingly industry- oriented, or that EMEA has been linked to Enterprise Directorate General (and not Health and Consumer Protection Directorate General), and receives most of its funds from industry (like most national medicines agencies). Medicines are now seen as simple goods serving the European economy, rather than as a cornerstone of citizens’ health. A "free market" policy that disregards public health regulations will be detrimental to European citizens. This trend is not inevitable. It is not too late to act. We can, and must, demand that change serves the public interest first and foremost. The pharmaceutical industry must not be given a free hand to ride roughshod over the rest of society. ©PI
4 • P RESCRIRE I NTERNATIONAL - E UROPEAN M EDICINES P OLICY Translated from Rev Prescr June 2002; 22 (229): 461-463 REORIENTING EUROPEAN MEDICINES POLICY
National marketing authorisation is granted by a national medicines agency, on the basis of an application file, after approval by the national licensing authorities. This form of authorisation is only valid in the country in which it is granted; European centralised marketing au- thorisation is granted by the European Commission, after examination of the file by the European Medicines Evaluation Agency (EMEA) and taking into account the opinion of the European Commission for Proprietary Medicinal Products (CPMP). This marketing authorisa- tion is valid in all EC Member States; Marketing authorisation by mutual recognition (also known as the decen- tralised procedure) is granted by national medicines agencies through recognition of marketing authorisa- tion initially granted by another Member State. This latter Member State is known as the Reference Member State (a), because it builds up the assessment report that is sub- mitted for recognition by other Member States. EMEA is kept informed of the procedure by the company, but the CPMP is only con- sulted when arbitration is required between Member States.
• EMEA (European Medicines Evaluation Agency). Created by a European Regulation in 1993, and in Pharmaceutical policy is now operation since 1995, EMEA is based in London. It co-ordinates the scien- decided at the European level tific resources provided by the differ- ent Member States for assessing and monitoring human and veterinary or about a decade now, phar- required to understand the new legal drugs. maceutical policy has been framework of the countries in which EMEA has no deciding power, but Fdecided and organised mainly we live and work. offers an “opinion” to other at the European level, within a con- First, a short glossary. text of international harmonisation. a- “Rapporteur country”, now called “Reference Some national responsibilities per- • Marketing authorisation. Member State”, i.e. the country which initially granted sist, but they are almost all governed Marketing authorisation allows a marketing authorisation within the mutual recogni- tion procedure should not be confused with “rappor- by rules that apply throughout the drug company to sell a proprietary teurs” and “co-rapporteurs”, who are CPMP members European Union. (industrially manufactured) drug. working within the framework of the centralised pro- Europe currently has three types of cedure. The latter are responsible for analysing drug A firm grasp of the functioning of assessment files on behalf of their CPMP colleagues. European institutions is therefore marketing authorisation: They act as members of a European expert Committee, not on behalf of their countries of origin.
P RESCRIRE I NTERNATIONAL - E UROPEAN M EDICINES P OLICY • 5 Distribution of roles within the European Union
• European Council: impetus and community treaties and decisions are Further information direction of general policies. Each enacted. It employs about 20 000 staff. European Communities. “Annuaire interinsti- Member State is represented by the head tutionnel – Qui fait quoi dans l’Union of government (or head of state) and min- • Advisory committees. The Européenne?” Office des publications offi- Economic and Social Committee, which cielles des Communautés européennes, ister for foreign affairs. Luxembourg 2002. Besides general informa- comprises three groups (employers, tion on EU institutions, this directory contains • European Parliament: shared leg- workers and miscellaneous activities), lists of all Members of Parliament and of the different institutions. All this information can islative power and budgetary power. has a consultative role. For example, it also be accessed via the Europa server of the The European Parliament has legislative organised a consultation on the drug reg- European Parliament (see below). power (in conjunction with the European ulation now undergoing discussion. The • Sauron JL “L’application du droit de l’Union Council), budgetary power and control Committee of the Regions, created with européenne en France” La Documentation power. It is composed of members of the the aim of bringing European institutions Française Collection Réflexe Europe, Paris European Parliament, who are elected by closer to the citizen and comprising local 2000: 135 pages. European citizens for 5-year terms of and regional representatives, also has a • The ABC of Community Law “Borchardt office. This is the only EC institution that consultative role. KD”– Fifth edition. European Communities 2000; European Commission, Directorate - meets and debates in public. General for Education and Culture - • Directives and Regulations. The Publications Unit, rue de la Loi - Wetstraat • European Council: shared legisla- scope of Directives and Regulations is 200, B-1049 Brussels (available in all EC lan- tive power. The Council (of ministers) of defined by article 249 of the European guages). Treaty: the European Union is also a legislative Website: body (in conjunction with the European « In order to carry out their task and in -European Parliament accordance with the provisions of this Treaty, http://www.europarl.eu.int (mostly in all EC Parliament). It includes one ministerial rep- languages). resentative from each Member State, and the European Parliament acting jointly with -European Union online its composition can vary according to the the Council, the Council and the Commission http://www.europa.eu.int/inst-fr.htm (mostly in all EC languages). issue in hand. Drug related matters can be shall make regulations and issue directives, discussed by ministers of health or indus- take decisions, make recommendations or try according to the decisions taken. deliver opinions. A regulation shall have general application. • European Commission: sole leg- It shall be binding in its entirety and directly islative initiative. The European applicable in all Member States. Commission is the only EC institution A directive shall be binding, as to the result with the right to propose new legislation. to be achieved, upon each Member State to It prepares legislation, in principle in keep- which it is addressed, but shall leave to the ing with the large directions laid down by national authorities the choice of form and the Council of the European Union. The methods. draft Directive and Regulation now being A decision shall be binding in its entirety discussed were prepared by the Enterprise upon those to whom it is addressed. Directorate General of the European Recommendations and opinions shall have Commission.The European Commission is no binding force. » also the European Community’s executive ©PI body, responsible for ensuring that