Counterfeit Medicines
The EBC has recently joined the European Alliance for Access to Safe Medicines (EAASM), an important organisation which is campaigning against the huge trade in illegal counterfeit medicines, and for the promotion of patient safety, in Europe. Two recent reports have highlighted how patient safety is threatened by illegal counterfeit medicines that can enter the legitimate European medicine distribution chain or can be obtained from illegal internet pharmacies. The Harper Report examines the drawbacks of Parallel Pharmaceutical Trade and how repackaging and relabelling of medicines can be exploited by counterfeiters. A short summary and press release give the essential points. The EAASM has also highlighted the massive problem of illegal online pharmacies in a project they call “The Counterfeiting Superhighway”. At a meeting in London in April (see EBC Newsletter June 2008), the EAASM provided teams of experts with 30 prescription drugs bought online to get their opinions on whether they were genuine or not. Subsequently the drugs were subject to chemical analysis. The findings are contained in a recently published report, “The Counterfeiting Superhighway” which shows that three out of five prescription-only medicines bought online were substandard, counterfeit or unapproved.
The 37 recommendations on Brain Science
At the end of a plenary session on the afternoon of Sunday 22 January, the European citizens’ panel had produced 37 recommendations on the six themes they had addressed during their deliberation on brain science. After the citizens had voted on the amendments in the plenary session on Sunday,
the writers' group revised the texts, introduced the amendments and made a few linguistic changes so that the texts read better in English.
Analysing and Reporting on Health Available on the DG SANCO web site and very soon in the EU Health Portal, this site contains all the health reports produced in DG SANCO, Eurostat and other European Commission DG's as well as links to the national systems on health reporting. The site is also available in French, German
and Spanish versions.
Publication of first calls of FP7
On 22nd December, the European Commission published the first and second calls of Framework 7. The details of all the calls are available from the CORDIS website (http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/dc/index.cfm) and
the Health
Work Programme(http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/dc/index.cfm?fuseaction=UserSite.CooperationDetailsCallPage&call_id=10) in which most of the opportunities for brain research can also be downloaded.
Complete results of Second European Citizens' Convention
In January 2005, the European citizens' panel presented its European Citizens' Assessment Report containing 37 recommendations on the ethical, legal, social and economic implications of
advances in brain science. But how did they achieve these results? A new report reveals the different stages of dialogue and debate that took place at the Second and last European Citizens' Convention.
Size and Burden of Mental Disorders in Europe
European Neuropsychopharmacology, 15 (4), August 2005
In this special issue the editorial and 11 state-of-the-art review articles inform about the current epidemiological knowledge from the EU region on size and burden of the following diagnoses: alcohol and drug use disorders, psychotic disorders, mood disorders (Major Depression and bipolar disorders), anxiety disorders (panic and agoraphobia, social phobia, Generalized Anxiety Disorder), dementia, and Parkinson´s disease.These findings served as epidemiological input for the economic analyses of the EBC project "Costs of Disorders of the brain in Europe".
Aho Report
Ahead of the European Business Summit of spring 2006, an independent expert group commissioned by the EC and led by former Finnish prime minister Esko Aho called for “a pact for research and innovation” to achieve the Lisbon
goals.
EC Green Paper on Mental Health
Published in October 2005 with the goal of launching a debate with European institutions, governments, health professionals, stakeholders in other sectors, civil society including patient organisations and the research community about the relevance of mental health for the EU, the need
for a mental health strategy at EU level and its possible priorities.
Innovative Medicines Initiative
Designed to remove bottlenecks hampering the development of new medicines by creating a public-private partnership under FP7.