BEUC NEWS - 31.05.2022

BEUC organised a workshop yesterday to shine a light on the difficulties consumers face when it comes to accessing medicines. Consumers in certain countries are increasingly facing shortages of medicines, particularly for serious conditions, while public health budgets around the EU are under growing pressure due to the high prices of certain medicines.

The European Commission is planning to propose a reform of the EU general pharma legislation at the end of the year and our event was an opportunity for consumer groups to weigh in on the discussions.

The workshop highlighted the problem of high medicine prices, and the challenges some consumers face in accessing the medicines they need. BEUC also shone a light on recent surveys that consumer groups part of the BEUC network have carried out. These surveys have shown that people increasingly experience problems in getting the medicines they need because of shortages. Between 2000 and 2018 for example, notifications of shortages in France have shot up 20-fold, while in Spain, they have multiplied by 12 in a decade.

These facts call for changes to the existing legislative framework in the EU.

For example, BEUC is pushing for Member State authorities to require pharmaceutical companies to submit drug shortage prevention plans. This will help identify risks and promote mitigation measures. We also favour a requirement for companies to have safety stocks and to have to notify earlier medicine shortages to the authorities. We argue that any medicine withdrawal should be preceded by a notification one year in advance. In addition, there should be dissuasive sanctions for companies that do not respect these obligations.

On medicine prices, BEUC supports a more balanced system on intellectual property (IP) incentives so that new medicines remain affordable. BEUC proposes adopting different periods of data and market protection depending on the type of product. It should also be possible for generic medicines and biosimilars to enter the market the day after IP protection on the originator product has expired.

You can consult our new policy paper on how the EU should amend its pharma legislation here.

Representatives from the entire medicine supply chain, EU institutions, Member States and user groups all participated in the workshop. There was an important discussion about the merits of electronic leaflets versus paper ones for medicines. While business groups support moving to e-leaflets, we and other user groups insisted on the importance of maintaining paper leaflets. On other issues, a variety of solutions were put forward by the different stakeholders in the room, providing food for thought for the Commission in the coming months.