EU Industry Commissioner-designate says she can handle medicine portfolio

Elzbieta Bieńkowska, the EU commissioner-designate for industry and the internal market, has defended the move of the pharmaceutical portfolio and of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) oversight from the Commission’s health directorate to her industry directorate.

'Putting the pharma industry together with other branches of industry is justified,' she told members of the European Parliament (MEPs) during a confirmation hearing in Brussels on 2 October. 'It is an industry that is the biggest producer in the world and where the EU is the world’s third largest exporter,' she added, while stressing that the health and safety of patients will be her top priority.

Bieńkowska reminded MEPs that the pharmaceutical and medical devices portfolios were a part of the Commission’s internal market directorate general (DG) until 2005 and now 'the portfolio is coming back to where it came from'.

I believe that this putting particular portfolio together with the common market and enterprises, industry and innovation is a sensible solution that will work in practice

'It’s a highly innovative sector and I believe that this putting particular portfolio together with the common market and enterprises, industry and innovation is a sensible solution that will work in practice,' she said.

When one MEP suggested that Bieńkowska was not experienced enough in dealing with the portfolio and the pharma industry lobby, she replied that the same people that were in charge of the medicines policy in DG health will be in charge of it under her DG. 'All my professional experience proves that I am lobbyist-proof,' she told the MEP, referring mainly to her current position as Poland’s infrastructure minister.

With small-and-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) also a part of her portfolio, the commissioner-designate promised to support them, including those in the pharma sector. 'In this particular industry, the number of innovative small businesses that can bring about major changes – they can discover a new treatment or a new drug – is relatively high,' she said.

All my professional experience proves that I am lobbyist-proof

The UK Labour MEP Glenis Willmott said during the hearing that DG enterprise, which will fall under Bieńkowska’s responsibility once she takes office, lobbied hard to water down rules in the EU’s new clinical trials regulation. Willmott was in charge of steering the newly-passed legislation through the European Parliament before its adoption. 'We need someone in the Commission to put patients’ safety before the industry,' she told Bieńkowska.

The industry commissioner-designate responded that the European Commission supported transparency when it comes to clinical trials, while at the same time providing 'adequate levels of protection against the abuse of data' contained in the trials. 'The new regulation on clinical trials strikes the right balance,' Bieńkowska said, adding that it will work with EU member states and EMA to ensure that this principle is respected.

For his part, the health and food safety commissioner-designate, Vytenis Andriukaitis, told MEPs in his confirmation hearing on September 30 that he will work with Bieńkowska on medicines and health issues. 'I will try to make sure that health will dominate in all areas,' he said.