The European Commission today adopted proposals for the pharmaceutical sector aimed at ensuring European citizens benefit from a more competitive and transparent industry.

“Everything we are suggesting today builds on the needs and interests of patients European citizens should benefit from safe, innovative and accessible medicines,” said European Commission Vice President Günter Verheugen, responsible for Enterprise and Industry. “They should be better informed about available medicines and treatments – since their health is at stake. We wish to restore the European Union’s traditional role as the pharmacy of the world.”

Community action in the pharmaceutical sector has the dual objective of safeguarding public health by providing Europe with safe and effective medicines, and creating a business environment that stimulates research, boosts innovation and supports the sector’s competitiveness. Much has been achieved in the past forty years, but Europe is faced today with major new health, economic and scientific challenges, and the EU has been losing ground in pharmaceutical innovation. European patients still suffer from inequalities in availability and affordability of medicines, and the use of counterfeit medicines are on the rise.

To address these challenges, the Commission has put forward a package consisting of four key parts:

• A communication to launch reflections on ways to improve market access and to develop initiatives to boost EU pharmaceutical research.
• A proposal to tackle the growing issue of counterfeiting and illegal distribution of medicines.
• Proposals to enable citizens to access high-quality information on prescription-only medicines.
• Proposals to improve patient protection by strengthening the EU system for the safety monitoring (’pharmacovigilance’) of medicines.