22/11/2010

Push and Pull - Putting the Patient First
Improving patient rights to information on pharmaceutical products

By Gunnar Larsson, Swedish Press

Harmonising legislation

Despite demands from both Parliament and patient organisations, there have never been any clear EU rules on patients' rights to information on prescription-only medicines. Only national legislation has applied. Once this was not a major cause of concern, but as Europeans have increasingly been able to access information on the Internet, the need for harmonised legislation has grown. If information is not available in their home countries patients can easily find the information they require online, but this information is not necessarily correct and might even be hazardous.


A new proposal

On Tuesday Parliament will debate proposals from Swedish MEP Christofer Fjellner on EU-wide standards for information to patients. The key issue has been what kind of information producers of pharmaceutical products should be allowed to provide patients with. In some countries these companies have not been allowed to provide any information at all due to objections from national regulators and doctors. Authorities have feared information from pharmaceutical companies would lead to disguised advertising and in turn increase demand for expensive products. Doctors have been concerned they, as experts, would be sidestepped if patients can seek information on their own. In other countries there is a more relaxed attitude towards this kind of information and in some cases there are even constitutional guarantees for freedom of information prohibiting any attempt to restrict information.

Focusing on the patient

Christofer Fjellner has tried to shift focus from producers' rights to patients' rights as he has strived to find a compromise satisfying national differences. To find unity he has drawn a line between 'push' and 'pull'. Pull meaning information actively sought by patients and push meaning unwanted information or disguised advertising. Pull should be easily obtained and pharmaceutical companies should even be obliged to provide such information. Push, on the other hand, should not be allowed as nobody is interested in seeing advertising for prescription drugs in Europe. In Parliament's Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety a broad compromise was reached and all major political groups have indicated their support for Fjellner's Report.

Not least patients with serious and unusual conditions will benefit from this improved right to information. Those who speak English have been able to find information on pioneering clinical trials in other countries on the Internet, but others, living in countries with restriction on information, have been excluded from important knowledge. Also slow bureaucratic procedures to approve information before it is released can now be avoided. Following the Committee vote Christofer Fjellner said: "Today, anyone but pharmaceutical companies is allowed to provide information on prescription drugs, which is unacceptable. The producer has the best knowledge of these products. Now we will allow the industry to spread information, but of course within strict limits and under strict supervision."