Health information: what consumers really want

Today, on the occasion of the seminar "The Informed Patient - What the European Union has to do" taking place in the European Parliament, BEUC stresses that we strongly support the right of access to quality, independent and balanced health information for all those who need it. However, as we understand that there is significant pressure to allow the pharmaceutical industry to provide 'information' directly to patients, we believe it is crucial to reiterate our position on this issue.

BEUC and its 41 member organisations are convinced that medicines are not an ordinary industrial or consumer product and that health information is not only about medicines but also about health promotion, prevention, and treatment options.

We also strongly believe that allowing pharmaceutical companies to provide information directly to the public will not solve the problems consumers face in accessing high quality information and will not help them to make an informed choice. If the current restrictions on companies were lifted, the health information available would be heavily biased by industry interests.

Information to patients can be improved within the existing legal framework for example:
- by promoting information initiatives at national, regional and local level
- by ensuring the transparency of medicine regulatory agencies
- by guaranteeing access to drug evaluation data and pharmacovigilance data,
- by improving the visibility of some trusted websites such as the European medicine agency EMEA and the EU health portal web sites
- and by improving patient leaflets.

According to Monique Goyens, BEUC Director General, "The inherent conflict of interest of pharmaceutical companies in providing information directly to patients is so obvious, that we can not imagine that any policy would allow it in Europe. Patients deserve information which is unbiased and of the highest possible quality, and other more reliable and independent sources, such as EMEA, must be promoted".

Please find attached the speech given today by Jim Murray, Advisor to BEUC, at the seminar "The Informed Patient - What the European Union has to do".

BEUC was created on 6 March 1962 by the consumer organisations of Belgium, Luxembourg, France, the Netherlands, Italy and Germany. After working together for a number of years, these organisations decided to create a European association, based in Brussels, right at the heart of Community policy. BEUC was a pioneer, one of the first lobbying organisations to set up base in the European capital in a bid to influence the decision-making process.