Mistrust in in EU puts pharmaceutical industry in the spotlight - by Jeremy Fleming

The European healthcare system is struggling to cope with low levels of transparency and trust in the pharmaceutical sector, according to 97% of doctors, industry professionals and policymakers attending a workshop at the Gastein Health Forum recently.

"North Korea would be proud of you!" said workshop moderator John Bowis, a former MEP and president of stakeholder group Health First Europe, after conducting the straw poll in a session addressing transparency between the public, health professionals and industry in the Austrian resort.
Thomas Heynisch, an official with the EU executive's enterprise department, told delegates that the Commission would publish new corporate social responsibility guidelines in early 2013 to tackle issues of trust and ethics in the pharmaceutical sector, and access to medicines in Europe.

This was prompted because the EU executive believed there was "a level of mistrust, particularly between public authorities and the pharma industry."

"The Commission wants to move beyond codes of conduct, but not to introduce new legislation, rather we want guiding principles which can be a source of inspiration for those working within and beyond the pharma industry," Heynisch said, explaining that enforcement of the new guidelines will be carried out at national level.

Richard Bergström, director-general of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA), agreed that transparency and trust were an issue, but that the pharmaceutical industry enjoyed levels of trust that exceeded other professions.  He concurred that "policymakers do not have that level of trust with us."

Referring to new rules which came into effect last month - requiring the European Medicines Agency (EMA) to disclose the details of clinical tests for drugs - he said: "There is a lot of raw data that will be in the public domain, and industry and the public need to find ways of navigating this so that it makes sense for all parties."

Read more: Mistrust puts pharmaceutical industry in the spotlight | EurActiv