MEETING OF 16 FEBRUARY 2007
On 16 February 2007, the EMEA Patient and Consumer Working Party met for the first time this year.
The main item on the agenda was the election of the two co-chairs for the next 3 years and the setting up of working groups to tackle certain issues in more detail.
After a rigorous election procedure, Nikos Dedes from EATG was elected as co-chair from the patient and consumers’ side, and Ms Isabelle Moulon was confirmed co-chair of the group from the EMEA’s side.
It was also decided that three members of this working group will be observers at the EMEA Working Group with Health Professionals.
Dissemination of information
Participants divided into two groups. Lara Garrido-Herrero acted as leader for the "Dissemination of Information" group, which looked at the current EMEA website section for patient and consumers, and how it could be improved. The group also looked at the opportunities for disseminating information about the EMEA’s patient and consumer-related activities.
Pharmacovigilance
This sub-group worked on a work plan with specific areas. It was agreed that the EMEA Working Group with Patients and Consumers should work on the following areas during 2007:
Auditing of companies and Member State activities in pharmacovigilance
Education on pharmacovigilance to trainers
Proposals to other EMEA Working Parties: WP with Health Professionals and DG Education and Youth on health literacy.
Pharmaceutical Forum
James Copping from DG Enterprise and Marianne Takki from DG Sanco presented the latest news from the Pharmaceutical Forum.
The September plenary meeting approved the work of the different working groups.
Working group on information to patients: a factsheet on information about diabetes was approved.
Working group on pricing: the results of a questionnaire distributed to the Pharmaceutical Forum members about their perception of innovation. The questionnaire, as of February 2007, has been answered by many members of the Pharmaceutical Forum, however the European Patients’ Forum recognized that they had not been able to gather many responses from their members to this questionnaire, so they offered to circulate it to members of the EMEA Working Group with Patients and Consumers.
During the plenary meeting of the Pharmaceutical Forum, MEP members of the forum stressed the importance of the role of industry and Member States which are already committed to piloting the recommendations of the factsheet on information to patients (case study on diabetes).
The Pharmaceutical Forum will now look for contributions from more stakeholders, especially regarding their recommendations on information to patients. Therefore, a public consultation will be launched soon. Questions will focus on getting feedback on quality principles for information to patients (definition of the principles: what is quality information, what is unbiased information, what is appropriate information, etc).
The next meeting of the Pharmaceutical Forum will be in June. The agenda will most likely include information to patients, with practical examples and political discussion of controversial issues. The discussion will use as a basis: the factsheets on diabetes, a collection of good practice, the results of the public consultation and the results of the internal questionnaire.
Revision of the pharmaceutical legislation
In parallel, the European Commission will be reporting to the European Parliament and the European Council on the implementation of the pharmaceutical legislation.
The report of the European Commission has already been drafted and should be available for public consultation shortly.
This consultation is a high political issue, and therefore is currently being discussed by the cabinets of DG Sanco and DG Enterprise.
MEETING 1 JUNE 2007
On 1 June 2007, the EMEA Patient and Consumer Working Party met for the second time this year. Teresa Alves (from HAI) represented EPHA at this meeting.
The main point of the agenda was the discussion on the input of the EMEA to the European Commission consultation on the provision of information to patients on medicinal products.
FUTURE MEETINGS FOR 2007
21 September and 7 December.
