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news.The European pharmaceutical industry has announced that it had never sought, direct-to-consumer advertising for prescription medicines to be permitted within the EU, reported PharmaTimes.
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In its response to the European Commission’s public consultation on the prescription drug information, the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) emphasized the need for a framework for providing necessary information on medicines to the public. The EFPIA also contested the Commission’s proposal to allow ‘push’ communication through television, radio and print media for prescription medicines.
According to EFPIA, mass media should only be used for disseminating information related to general health information on diseases, covering awareness and prevention, to the public. But when information related to specific medicines is requested by the patients, the data which is provided through online or compliance programs should meet the quality standards set by the governance bodies.
The European pharmaceutical industry also suggested an alternative governance system for monitoring the information provided by the industry. It proposed an EU-wide ‘health information’ Code of Conduct that includes effective quality assessment procedures for information, ex-post control mechanisms (with involvement of third/independent parties) and robust enforcement procedures in case of breaches including sanctions as well as fines.
Arthur Higgins, EFPIA president and CEO of Bayer HealthCare, said: “After years of debate, we call on all European institutions to develop a patient-centred EU framework for information provision without further delay.”