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News > Medicines information

New EU health chief questions drug industry communications

29 January 2010
News > Medicines information

The European Union has a new health commissioner, John Dalli, who will be taking up a five year post next month. Changes to his mandate will mean that he has more influence over public health policy than his predecessors - which includes responsibility for drafting all future pharmaceutical legislation.  Pharmaceuticals and medical devices now come under the health policy heading.

Mr Dalli confirmed that he would place the interests of patients first but insisted that this did not exclude a strong commitment to the future competitiveness of the drug industry.

"Patient interests rest on a strong profitable pharmaceutical industry," he said. "Support for the industry and patients are not contradictory. You can get synergy between the two. I will push the industry to do more to put patients in the frontline."

But he expressed strong concerns about plans to allow drug companies to communicate directly with the public by allowing companies, under certain conditions, to publish information on their products in newspapers and magazines.

"We will reassess the package on information and bring more patient perspective to the proposal," he said, adding that the reassessment would include stronger demarcation between information and advertising. "You do not want a situation where people in a vulnerable position can be coerced to purchase a product that may not be good for them," he said.

Taken from the BMJ (subscription needed): www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/340/jan20_2/c353