Barcelona – At their joint Executive meeting in Barcelona today, the Spanish Generic Medicines Association (AESEG) and the European Generic and Biosimilar Medicines Association (EGA) confirmed their commitment to join forces and bring access to generic medicines to the Spanish market, reinforcing the industry’s commitment to increase patient access to high quality medicines. A recent IGES study has shown that better access to generic medicines can have significant health outcome benefits for patients.
The AESEG and EGA Executives debated the importance of re-introducing price differentiation between originator and generic medicines to stimulate competition, the negative consequences of the procurement system in Andalusia and the SPC (Supplementary Protection Certificate) manufacturing waiver proposal which would create thousands of jobs for the Spanish pharmaceutical industry.
EGA Director General Adrian van den Hoven highlighted that “Our industry is ready to work with the Spanish authorities to remove barriers to competition and increase the cost-effectiveness of therapies to ensure better access to high quality medicines for patients”.
AESEG Director General Angel Luis Rodriguez de la Cuerda, pointed out that “7 out of 10 generic medicines in Spain are manufactured in Spain. Healthy generic competition in the Spanish market will provide additional value and jobs for the country. Therefore, the European Commission proposal for an SPC manufacturing waiver is essential to create new manufacturing and job opportunities in Spain. We call on the Spanish Government to strongly support this job creating measure in the EU”.
PICTURE (from left to right side): Adrian van den Hoven (EGA Director General), Christoph Stoller (EGA Vicepresident), Raúl Díaz-Varela (AESEG President), Ángel Luis Rodríguez de la Cuerda (AESEG Director General).
About the EGA (European Generic and Biosimilar medicines Association)
The EGA represents the European generic, biosimilar and value-added medicines industries, which provide high-quality cost-competitive medicines to millions of European patients. Companies represented within the EGA provide over 160,000 skilled, high value direct jobs in Europe. Without generic medicines, payers in Europe would have had to pay €100 billion more in 2014. Generic medicines account for 56% of all dispensed medicines but for only 22% of the pharmaceutical expenditure in Europe. The European generic and biosimilar medicines industries’ vision is to provide sustainable access to high quality medicines for all European patients, based on 5 important pillars: patients, quality, value, sustainability and partnership. For more information please follow EGA at www.egagenerics.com and on Twitter @egagenerics and @ebgbiosimilars.
EGA Communications: Doris Casares dcasares@egagenerics.com
About AESEG (Spanish Generic Medicines Association)
AESEG is the official representative body of the generic pharmaceutical industry in Spain. Any pharmaceutical company manufacturing raw materials and pharmaceutical active substances as well as technological development companies that focus activities on generic medicines in Spain can be a member of AESEG.
AESEG was constituted in Barcelona in March 1998 as a nationwide non-profit organisation, aimed to foster awareness and use of generic medicines and to create a real generic medicines culture in the heart of the Spanish society. For more information : www.aeseg.es and www.engenerico.com
AESEG Communications: Marisol Atencio matencio@aeseg.es