The European Union Review, Vol. 12 No. 1-2 2007

Les entreprises pharmaceutiques européennes et l’union économique : quelle politique européenne pour le secteur pharmaceutique ? Une politique européenne pour le médicament

Jean-Gérard Lieberherr - Publicist

Abstract

Healthcare is the largest “industrial” activity of developed countries (9% of GNP in the European Union, 16% in the US). The two percentage points difference that exists between the growth rates of the demand for healthcare products and services, on one hand, and GNP, on the other hand, has the potential to generate each year an additional 0.2 % to GNP growth, with substantial impact on employment and science. Still, the European Union is dramatically lagging behind the US in terms of medical research, including biotechnology, as illustrated by a variety of indicators. At the 2000 EU Summit in Lisbon, an ambitious strategy for R&D within the EU was agreed upon. However, the institutional framework indispensable to success was missing and today the Lisbon strategy remains at standstill. Pooling resources among Member States in medical research can make it possible to meet objectives that each Member State would be unable to reach by itself. The propositions included in this paper aim at organising under the authority of the newly established European Research Council (ERC) all the Technology Platforms involved in healthcare research, including in this regrouping the “cooperative programs” as well the Joint Technology Initiatives (JTI), thus creating European Centres of Excellence in medical research where Public/Private Partnerships would play a key role. Such regrouping could be carried out within a European Institute of Health (EIH), organised along lines similar to those of the American NIH. The EIH could be structured either as a European Agency or a Federal Enterprise.

Keywords: European Economic Union. European Economic Policy, Pharmaceutical Sector

Mots-clé:Union Economique Européenne, Politique Economique Européenne, Secteur Pharmaceutique