EAEPC demands switch on EC pharma package

The European Association of Euro-Pharmaceutical Companies, which represents parallel traders, has written to the European Commission to try to take the so-called "pharmaceutical package" of new legislation out of the hands of Gunter Verheugen.

The EAEPC has asked Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso to shift responsibility for the  legislation over to European Commissioner for Health, Androulla Vassiliou.

The EAEPC's president, Richard Freudenberg, claimed in the letter that Commissioner  Verheugen, the Commissioner for Industry, was supporting "the pharmaceutical industry's  commercial agenda under the guise of protecting and empowering Europe's patients."

The key area of change which is giving the EAEPC pause for thought is a proposed ban on  medicine repackaging within the European Union, which has been put forward as a weak link in the supply chain that might be open to exploitation by counterfeiters.

The repackaging proposal is "based on myths and an impact assessment characterised by a complete lack of evidence, and worse, deliberate manipulation of the facts," according to the parallel trade group.

The EAEPC has claimed in the past that there has not been a single case of a counterfeit medicine entering the legal European pharmaceutical supply via a parallel distributor, although that position was undermined this year when one case was uncovered involving repackaging of a counterfeit product by a UK trader.

Speaking at the Pharma Secure Chain conference in October, Heinz Kobelt, secretary general of the EAEPC, said that he believed the drug industry is using the UK case to exert political pressure on the EC in order to get a ban on repackaging in place.