Richard Barker, ABPI Director General, defended the pharma industry in an editorial for the BBC.
In his May Viewpoint piece, Richard Barker emphasised the ‘painstaking work’ required to bring a new medicine to market, the role of the ‘unsung heroes’ in research and development and the ‘world-class’ status of the industry in the UK.
The BBC article coincided with the publication of the ABPI Annual Report 2008/09, which provides an update on the activities of the Association over the past year, as well as the challenges and successes of the industry as a whole and plans for the future.
The latest report looks back on 2008 as a year in which the industry has laid the groundwork for new and better relationships with the NHS and government, particularly through the renegotiated Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme (PPRS).
It highlights some of the ABPI’s key achievements, such the PPRS negotiations, the creation of a new Office for Life Sciences to promote continued investment in the industry and the initiation of a new programme of joint working between the industry and SHAs.
President Chris Brinsmead writes: “Member companies are reshaping their businesses, with added urgency provided by the difficult economic climate. This makes it all the more important to maintain strong relationships in 2009 and beyond. Trust can be gained or lost as a result of our behaviour day by day.”
The four imperatives
The report is divided into four main sections, which also represent the ABPI’s four strategic imperatives: Value, Innovation, Trust and Access.
The four imperatives are described as a ‘call to action’ for the member companies and will be the basis for a number of campaigns and projects as part of a three-year strategic plan.
Value
Linked to Richard Barker’s BBC editorial, this imperative will be about ensuring that society has a better understanding of the value provided by the industry.
The report states that just 14% of the medicines available on the UK market were introduced in the last five years. However, it is hoped that the new PPRS agreement, reached in December 2008, will begin to address this problem.
Under the new agreement, the industry has accepted a number of concessions, such as profit control and price cuts, but gained various commitments in return, including mandatory NHS funding for NICE approved drugs, patient access schemes for drugs not yet assessed by NICE, and published local and national data on the uptake of medicines.
Innovation
This imperative will include various projects to ensure the industry remains a world-class centre for R&D, particularly in areas of unmet medical need.
Part of this, and to address issues of access to information, the ABPI has published its Best Practice Model for the Disclosure of Results and Transparent Information on Clinical Trials, intended to set the ‘gold-standard’ for the presentation of clinical trials.
As one of many activities in this area, the Association has also been involved with lobbying the Intellectual Property Office over two threats to the value of patents: proposals to create a pan-European litigation system for granting patents and the WHO proposal to force the industry to engage in ‘patent pooling’.
Trust
“Building trust means raising awareness of what the pharmaceutical industry is good at and the benefits it brings to society,” the report says, adding: “The pharmaceutical industry is changing how it does business to match how the NHS and its other customers are also changing. A new understanding is required and a new openness and new ways to behave.”
As part of this, the ABPI is establishing various partnerships with patient groups such as the Neurological Alliance, and through the launch of ABPI Northern Ireland, now has representation throughout the UK.
To better engage with the NHS, the ABPI has developed support materials to help companies and the NHS to combine their efforts in joint working projects, and the ABPI Outreach project has had continued success in working with PCTs who have not collaborated with the industry previously.
Access
In efforts to improve access to medicines, the ABPI is continuing to work closely with NICE, as well as the SMC.
It is hoped that this will be supported by the implementation of the NHS Constitution, which states patients’ rights to new medicines and to greater transparency of decision-making, and the Darzi Review, which demonstrates a new commitment to supporting innovation and quality improvement.
Various initiatives have been put in place to further overcome the obstacles of ‘overregulation’ such as the Pharmaceutical Oncology Initiative, working with the NHS to improve access to cancer medicines, and a new government/industry working group set up to look into a UK Compassionate Use scheme for areas of currently unmet needs.
The full report can be found at www.abpi.org.uk/recent.asp.