EU May Lose Edge Due To Proposed Law, Says Pharma Lobby

In a major concern surrounding Europe’s pharma industry, there is an anticipation that it could go on to lose out to elevated competition from emerging markets like China as well as the US when one talks of innovation and research if a proposed European Union health package does not get altered, as per the key industry group.

It is well to be noted that the EU Commission went on to present a proposal so as to overhaul a large set of rules that govern health as well as medicines across the 27-member bloc in April; however, the move has seen a backlash from the sector.

Among the novel measures, the commission wants to reverse the dip when it comes to regional manufacturing, avoid a repeat instance of drug dearth caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, enhance healthcare and affordable drug access, and at the same time put an end to the running parallel medicine market that takes advantage of the price disparities that are prevalent across the EU nations.

In a statement released by the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries Associations, although they support the crackdown when it comes to the parallel market, they anticipate it to be more than $7 billion and see other elements of the package as kind of damaging.

Pharma giants such as Pfizer, Novo Nordisk, AstraZeneca, Bayer, and Sanofi happen to be members of the EFPIA. Apparently, the industry group estimates a 25% relative dip in R&D as well as a drop when it comes to the worldwide share of clinical trials in Europe from 25% to 19% if the law happens to get passed.

The EFPIA statement says that the proposed legislation does begin to evolve the regulatory system of Europe, which in a way has not been modernised extensively in the last couple of decades and happens to be increasingly slower than what it is in the US. That said, it prominently lessens European intellectual property rights while also making sure to add complex incentives in terms of additional IP protection, which in practicality makes it highly impossible to achieve such incentives.

Interestingly, Brussels is looking to shorten the period for IP protection companies before generics can make an entry into the market from 10 to 8 years.