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