EU Conference on Pharmaceutical Innovation - Press Statement Higgins

Good morning Ladies and Gentlemen,

In my presentation today there were three key points I wanted to make:

1) The European pharmaceutical industry is key to helping Europe achieve the Lisbon objective. In 2006 alone, we invested more than €22 billion in R&D, that is 18% of all industrial R&D, and employed about 640,000 people. Quite simply, without a thriving pharmaceutical industry there would be no new medicines.

2) These are impressive facts - but who cares? Clearly, our message does not sell because the reality is that the centre of pharmaceutical R&D has moved to the US, China and India. European countries do not seem willing to support and reward pharmaceutical innovation and patients face increasing delays in access to new medicines.

3) To reverse these trends, it is our responsibility to rebuild trust in our industry but in turn framework conditions in Europe need to improve to help us stay in the competitiveness race. What we need is:

• Firstly, a better patient access to new medicines.
• Secondly, a fair reward for innovation - including incremental innovation.
• Thirdly, sound intellectual property rights.
• Fourthly, new thinking to balance healthcare costs, shifting the focus from the cost of medicines to their value