matterMEDICINES

July 2010

Supporting Irish patients and the Irish economy

last three years. But we cannot rest onour laurels. In 2008 the industry inIreland produced 9 of the top 15medicines in the world. In 2009 that haddropped to 5 of the top 12 as revenuesfell off as a result of patent expirationsand subsequent generic competition.

In order that the industry can play a fullrole in Ireland’s economic recovery it iscrucial that Ireland maintains itsreputation as a country thatunderstands and values innovation andthe contribution of the pharmaceuticalindustry. In this regard Governmentneeds to ensure we maintain ourcompetitive rate of corporation tax,improve the existing R&D tax credit andmost important of all that Irish patientscontinue to have timely access toinnovative medicines. The “InnovationIsland” and Ireland’s economic recoverydepend on these types of actions.”

A strong and supported pharmaceutical industryis central to Ireland’s economic recoveryIPHA recently launched the latestedition of its PharmaceuticalHealthcare Facts and Figures 2010which presents an overview ofhealthcare in Ireland and thepharmaceutical industry bothnationally and globally.

Speaking at the launch, Dr GeraldFarrell, IPHA President stated:“It is clear from our latest edition ofPharmaceutical Healthcare Facts andFigures that the international research-based pharmaceutical industry’sfootprint spans the entire island ofIreland. Every day the industry plays avital role in the lives of Irish patients andconsumers. When they fall ill – whetherit’s with a cold or something moreserious – it is likely that they will take amedicine or treatment to help them getbetter. Not only that, our industry has

key role to play in helping the Irisheconomy get better too.

The Government has spoken of its desireto create an “Innovation Island” andhow this is central to our economicrecovery. The international research-based pharmaceutical industry has beena key driver of our economy over thelast forty years. This sector sees, inIreland, a country which is open for ourbusiness and responsive to our needs.That’s why right now we employ morethan 24,500 people directly and as manyagain indirectly. It also explains why weare the largest contributors tocorporation tax and whypharmaceuticals, along with chemicalsand medical products, account for over50% of Irish exports.

Further investments continue to bemade including 1.2 billion euro in the

Click here to visit ipha.ie to accessPharmaceutical Healthcare Factsand Figures 2010.

40%medicines

€500€94

505million

numbersBy the

million in savings for the State€94

40%reduction in the price of these medicines

Several hundred named, familiar brand medicines

Potential saving of up to €500per year for patients

IPHA responds to economic crisis and createsimmediate savings on the State bill for medicinesOn the 1st February 2010 theIPHA announced that the costof long established post-patented medicines would bereduced by 40%.

IPHA set up a special website –checkthelist.ie – on which patients couldcheck to see if their medicines were listed,and the price reduction. The website carrieda detailed list of all the medicines and theirnew, lower prices and included some of themost commonly prescribed medicines in thecountry.

In the first week of the campaign nearly100,000 unique users visited the website tocheck the list thus answering the

Association's call to patients to visit thewebsite as those who have to pay for theirmedicines could save €3 - €4 on every €10they spend - a potential saving of up to€500 per year. To date checkthelist.ie hashad over 250,000 unique users.

The reduction in cost of several hundrednamed, familiar branded medicines was theresult of an initiative by the industry toreduce costs for the State by €94m over a12 month period.

On announcing the reduction Mr BrianMurphy, IPHA Director of CommercialAffairs stated: "We were approached by theMinister for Health and Children with arequest to create immediate savings on theState bill for medicines. Recognising thedifficult position of the Irish economy and

the tough decisions facing the IrishGovernment our member companies werewilling to play their part in helping toreduce costs and prices. This initiative willsignificantly reduce costs for the State, andit will also reduce prices that patients paydirectly for some of their medicines."

The constructive relationship which subsistsbetween the IPHA and the State has been akey factor in the industry’s willingness tolocate so much foreign direct investment inthis country, over €7 billion, in the last tenyears.

IPHA response to Irish Times article on “Tackling drug costs”Mr Brian Murphy, IPHA Director ofCommercial Affairs, recently sent aresponse to the Editor of the Irish Timeswith regard to an editorial she wroteentitled “Tackling drug costs”. In it hestated that:

“The spend by the Irish State on medicines is,actually amongst the lowest in WesternEurope. According to the latest availableOECD data, Health at Glance 2007,pharmaceutical expenditure per capita inIreland was just $320 whilst the OECDaverage was $413 and countries likeGermany ($498), Spain ($515) and France($554) spent well in excess of this sum.Taking another measure, pharmaceuticalexpenditure as a percentage of healthcare

expenditure, the OECD average for 2007 is17.6% whereas the Irish figure is just 14%.The editorial also commented on thesignificant growth in pharmaceuticalexpenditure in Ireland in recent years. Thisgrowth must be placed in the context of ourageing and growing population and the factthat Ireland was coming from a very low basein the 1990s when it had amongst the lowestlevels of life expectancy in the European Union.

Over the last decade there has beensignificant public expenditure on initiatives toimprove health in areas such as cancer andcardiovascular disease. These have resulted intens of thousands of patients being able toaccess more and better care which enhancedtheir quality of life and life expectancy.

The level of circulatory system disease fell by38% between 1997 and 2005. Over thesame period the cancer mortality rate fell by13% and is now close to the EU average. Interms of breast cancer, the five-year relativesurvival rate is about 80% for the period1999-2004, the highest rate of improvementin the OECD.

A consequence of these welcome initiativeshas been the utilisation of medicines on amuch greater scale. The growing medicinesbill has therefore been a consequence ofinvestment in the development of the healthservice for public benefit rather than asperhaps suggested by the editorial someform of policy failure.”

Click here to visit checkthelist.iefor more information

David Gallagher (PfizerHealthcare Ireland) was recentlyappointed IPHA Vice-President ofthe Association, Craig Skelton(Abbott) was appointed to theIPHA Board of Directors whileSally Storey (GSK) and MichaelByrne (Amgen) were appointedto the IPHA PrescriptionMedicines Division StrategyBoard.

A graduate of University CollegeDublin with a Bachelor of ScienceDegree and the Michael SmurfitBusiness School Ireland/KULeuven, Belgium with a MastersDegree in Business Studies, MrDavid Gallagher is currentlyManaging Director of PfizerHealthcare Ireland, a position hewas appointed to in May 2007.David has significantinternational experience in thepharmaceutical andbiotechnology sectors havingworked in various positionswithin the industry globally.

Craig Skelton is currently GeneralManager for Abbott Ireland.

Craig joined Abbott in 1987 as asales representative in NewZealand for theHospital/Nutritional Division. Hehas held various support andmanagement responsibilitiesacross several internationalassignments including marketingand management positions inAbbott Australia, InternationalBusiness Development in Chicagoand Marketing Director –Hospital, HIV and Nutritionalproducts in Japan. Prior to hiscurrent role, Craig heldleadership roles as GeneralManager in both Romania andPoland. Craig has a Diploma inSurgical Technology from WillardGraph College, Missouri, USA anda Marketing Diploma fromUniversity of New South Wales,Sydney, Australia.

With over 25 years experience inthe pharmaceutical industry MrMichael Byrne, General Managerof Amgen Ireland which is part ofthe world’s largest biotechnologycompany has held a wide varietyof senior general management

positions within Pharmacia,Chiron and now Amgen. Michaelholds a Bachelor of ScienceDegree from the NationalUniversity of Ireland and is aMarketing Graduate from theCollege of Marketing.

Ms Sally Storey, appointed VicePresident and General Managerof GlaxoSmithKlinePharmaceuticals Ireland inJanuary 2010, has worked withGlaxoSmithKline for over 13years. Prior to this she held avariety of commercial roleswithin the company includinghead of Commercial Operationsin the Emerging Markets andAsia Pacific/Japan region, withresponsibility for commercialisedpharmaceutical brands and forthe commercial support functionssuch as commercial excellence,market access and pricing,communications and businessanalysis. Sally is a graduate ofDurham University with a yearspent at the People’s University inBeijing, China.

David Gallagher

Michael Byrne

Craig Skelton

Sally Storey

medicines.ie, the medicines informationonline portal developed by the IPHA, hasbeen certified as a trustworthy source ofhealth information by the Health on theNet Foundation (HON).

Announcing the news, Ms Anne Nolan,IPHA Chief Executive stated that “Patientsare being provided with increasingamounts of information from differentparties with various objectives sentthrough multiple channels, particularly theinternet. Technology is revolutionisinghow and when people access information.

The widespread use of the Internet hasseen unprecedented numbers of peoplesourcing information and engaging indiscussions about their health andmedicines online. This information ishowever of varying quality and accuracy.

Better informed patients will lead to saferand more successful healthoutcomes, a more efficient useof healthcare resources andultimately, to healthier societies.

medicines.ie provides thenecessary information so thatpatients may stay informedwith the latest, regulatoryapproved, information onprescription and ‘over-the-counter’ (non prescription)medicines available inIreland.”

medicines.ie certified as trustworthysource of health information by theHealth on the Net Foundation

New appointments at the IPHA

Click here to visit medicines.iefor more information.

• “EFPIA Leadership Statementon Ethical Practices”: Industryrestricts product sampling andsets new standards for salesrepresentatives and congresses,24th June 2010

• Improving Responses to FutureInfluenza Pandemics - Lessonsfrom the 2009-10 H1N1Pandemic, 24th June 2010

• IPHA response to publication ofguidance on the safe supply ofnon-prescription medicinalproducts containing codeine,11th June 2010

• Pharmaceutical industry agreesjoint position on publication ofclinical trial results in scientificliterature, 10th June 2010

• Pharmaceutical industrylaunches "Ten Principles onCounterfeit Medicines" to re-focus attention on this issue,12th May 2010

• European VaccineManufacturers support WHOEurope Immunisation Week’sgoal of improving vaccinationacross the region, 28th April2010

• World TB Day - Industryannounce that ongoing R&D toshorten treatment and addressresistance, 24th March 2010

• Pharmaceutical industryprovides nearly $35 million inaid to Haiti, 15th February 2010

• EVM Contributes to Council ofEurope Hearing on “TheHandling of The H1N1Pandemic: More TransparencyNeeded?”, 26th January 2010

• Industry Statement to WHOExecutive Board on PandemicInfluenza Preparedness, 20thJanuary 2010

To find these articles please visitthe latest news section on

www.ipha.ie,or for a quick find use

the search facility.

www.ipha.ie

Pfizer Healthcare Ireland: UK Premiershipfootballer Rory Delap, renowned for hisdevastating throw-in, recently launched ‘Back inPlay’, a Europe wide campaign to raiseawareness of ankylosing spondylitis (AS), apoorly understood condition which can affectthe lower back. The campaign, supported bythe International AS International Federation(ASIF), kicked off with the launch of the Back inPlay website, www.back-in-play.com. The sitefeatures a football game which tests a player’sthrow-in skills whilst highlighting the symptomsof AS than can differentiate it from other backpain.

Novartis Ireland: Well-known doctor andtelevision presenter Dr. Mark Hamilton recentlyhelped launch World Hypertension Day 2010which has been established to highlight thepreventable stroke, heart and kidney diseasescaused by high blood pressure and tocommunicate to the public information onprevention, detection and treatment. Novartisalso launched a new text service that remindspeople to take their medicine on time, availableby visiting www.dontforget.ie and a newwebsite with information about high bloodpressure, www.bloodpressure.ie.

sanofi-aventis Ireland: Coronation Street’s KymMarsh visited Dublin recently to launch a newwebsite for people with type 2 diabetes.www.itsmyinsulin.ie aims to educate people on

diabetes and management of the condition.With a projected 62% rise in diabetes in Irelandby the year 2020, the site will prove anincreasingly valuable source of information forthe 200,000 people currently living withdiabetes.

Astellas Ireland: Launched in June, with thesupport of Minister for Older People and HealthPromotion, Ms Aine Brady TD, renowned RTEpresenter Michael Ryan, Nationwide and leadingUrologist consultant Mr Tom Lynch, theWaterworks programme and www.water-works.ie aims to raise awareness of the conditionBenign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH). BPH is acondition intimately related to aging.Troublesome LUTS can occur in up to 30% of menolder than 65 years.

Merck Sharp & Dohme: Innovation was thetheme of the day at the third Crystal Clear MSDHealth Literacy Awards. Staff Midwife, UnaO'Brien developed a creative 'Txt and Twitter'project. Una noticed that many teenagemothers did not attend antenatal educationand were unprepared for the birth of theirchild. Nearly every teenage mother has amobile phone so with the help of one of theyoung mums Una translated her message aboutantenatal classes into 'teenage textinglanguage' and increased attendance by 90%.The judges felt Una's project was trulyinspirational and highlighted how using clearhealth communication can make a realdifference to people's lives.

Member Company’s News

The development of Ireland as acentre for clinical research wouldhelp to embed the pharmaceuticalsector in the Irish economyThe IPHA recently attended thelaunch of the Clinical ResearchRoadmap by the Irish Clinical ResearchInfrastructure Network (ICRIN) havingplayed a key role in its development.The roadmap clearly defines thenecessary steps Ireland needs to taketo create a sustainable nationalsystem to support clinical research.

Speaking following the launch of theroadmap, Ms Anne Nolan, IPHA ChiefExecutive stated: “Ireland has aunique opportunity to position itselfas a hub for clinical research. Bringingearly stage clinical trials to Irelandwould help ensure prompt access forIrish patients to innovative medicinesonce the medicine has been approved,thanks to the familiarisation ofconsultants at a very early stage of thetesting of the medicine while at thesame time helping the process ofembedding the sector in the Irisheconomy at an ever-higher level ofsophistication and value.”

Clinical trials are an essential part ofthe development of a new medicine.Clinical research programmes areinternational in nature and just likeany other foreign direct investmentIreland must compete with othercountries for its share of internationalfunding. In particular, Irish subsidiarieshave to compete with sistersubsidiaries in other countries,increasingly with those in Central andEastern Europe for clinical trials. Inorder to give Ireland the best possibleopportunity of attracting industryclinical research the followingrecommended actions, taken from theroadmap, need to be undertakenimmediately:

• Six to eight national research ethicscommittees should be established toprovide a multi-site single opinionreview for all categories of clinicalresearch involving the recruitmentof participants through the healthservice.

• A Central Office for Research EthicsCommittees should be established,with the necessary legal

underpinning for the oversight andsupport of ethics committees inIreland.

• Each hospital should develop aresearch strategy in close associationwith its affiliated university toreflect its commitment to researchas a core mission of the hospital andassign responsibility forimplementation of the strategy to asenior member of staff.

• The Health Research Group shouldagree and encourage the adoptionof metrics of research support inhospitals that could be tracked overtime and the contribution ofhospitals to government policies oninnovation measured.

• The Health Service Executive shouldrecommend a role profile forresearch nurses, entry levelqualifications and experience andopportunities for further training.

• The Health Service Executive shouldensure that health employers meettheir responsibilities to fill fundedresearch posts in all disciplines.

“The industry has estimated that thelevel of clinical trial activity in Irelandcould be more than doubled if thecorrect professional, efficient andtimely system could be put in place. Ifthis is not done, not only will Irelandpotentially not get any additionaltrials but also even the existing levelof activity could be put in jeopardy.”concluded Ms Nolan.

Click here to visitshort.ie/roadmap todownload the document.

Irish Pharmaceutical Healthcare AssociationFranklin House140 Pembroke RoadDublin 4Ireland Tel: (353 1) 660 3350 Fax: (353 1) 668 6672 E-mail: info@ipha.ie

www.ipha.iewww.medicines.iewww.feelbetter.iewww.self-care.ie

Medicines Matter is published by the Irish Pharmaceutical Healthcare Association (IPHA) which representsthe international research-based pharmaceutical industry in Ireland. Its member companies include bothmanufacturers of prescription medicines and non-prescription or consumer health care medicines.

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The International Federation ofPharmaceutical Manufacturers& Associations, of which theIPHA is a member, recentlypublished the latest edition ofits “Developing World HealthPartnerships Directory”. Thisresource documents theresearch-based pharmaceuticalindustry’s very substantialcommitment to long-termpublic-private partnershipswhich improve health indeveloping countries, almost allof which are on a philanthropicor not-for-profit basis.

When the industry first documented itsdeveloping world health partnerships back in2003, it counted a total of 36 activeprogrammes. In 2010, that total has risen to213 and covers a broader range of diseasesand health needs, including child andmaternal health, chronic diseases andstrengthening healthcare capacity indeveloping countries. Improving global

health poses a huge challenge, which willrequire a concerted effort by both the publicand private sectors, in developed anddeveloping countries alike. During the courseof the last year, the overall number of activeprogrammes undertaken increased by 11,with 23 new programmes started and 12completed. The disease area with the biggestgrowth was HIV/AIDS, with a net increase ofsix programmes, while programmes forTropical Diseases increased by three.The country hosting the most activeprogrammes remains Kenya, with a total of49, up from 43 in 2009. Nine of the tencountries with the most programmes are insub-Saharan Africa. Outside Africa, thecountry with the most programmes is India,with 45. In the Asia-Pacific region, China

leads with 23 programmes, while Brazilheads Latin America with 21. In theMediterranean area, Egypt has 11programmes, as does Ukraine, which is thecountry with the most programmes inEurope.

Pharmaceutical industryprogrammes to improve globalhealth now total 213

The Directory exists as asearchable interactive database.Click here to access atifpma.org/healthpartnerships.

Credit: GSK

Credit: Pfizer