EU presidency promises more drug information but no marketing

Patients should have more information on drugs, but a distinction needs to be made between information and marketing, Slovenian health minister Zofija Mazej Kukovic said at an EU presentation in Brussels of the Slovenian Presidency's health programme.

The European Commission is scheduled to make a proposal at the end of the year - probably during the French presidency that begins in mid-2008 - aimed at modifying the rules governing the information on medicines directed at patients.

Kukovic reiterated that the line separating information and marketing was a very fine one. "Naturally, patients have to be informed, but between information and too much marketing .. this line is very, very fine," the minister said. "This is a great risk, because people who are ill are trying to inform themselves to gain hope."

She also expressed concern over "the problem of drugs which have a negative impact on public health", which she said is a hot topic, particularly on small markets.

"We know very well that there are markets that are less interesting [to pharma companies] economically [smaller markets], but access [to drugs] is required," she added, asking the members of the Parliamentary Committee to examine this problem.

Kukovic suggested that European networks could be created to facilitate the access to drugs on small markets.

She also pledged that, although the European Commission is delaying presenting a draft directive on health services - including the issue of crossborder treatment - the current Slovenian Presidency of the EU will not ignore the subject, even if a consensus between Member States looks difficult to find.

Looking at the issue of EU patients having treatment outside of their country but with their homeland picking up the bill, she said: "The consensus is not easy to reach, there are differences between the Member States."

Following the exclusion of health services from the services directive, the European Commission promised a text specific to health care. However, the presentation of the draft, which should in particular concern the conditions enabling healthcare to be authorised and reimbursed in another Member State, is being continually postponed.

Kukovic assured MEPs that the Slovenian presidency intended to put the subject on the table at a forthcoming informal meeting in Slovenia then at the formal Council in June.

After several previous postponements, the Commission announced that the presentation would take place on 19 December 2007, but this did not happen due to a "heavy schedule".

The Commission then said that the presentation would take place at the end of January or the beginning of February 2008, but it is now saying that no date has been set and that the text should be presented at "the beginning of 2008".

MEPs and several Member States are opposed to the scheme, fearing that the directive will endanger their national health insurance systems and their budgets. Member States are concerned in particular as to whether the future legislation could allow a patient to be treated in another Member State and then to be reimbursed by their home State, without having to ask for prior authorisation from their home State.

Preferring to go back to the drawing board, the European Commission has decided to defer presenting a text which will require the approval of Parliament and the Member States in order for it to one day have the force of law.