About Medicines for Europe

Medicines for Europe began over 20 years ago as the European Generics Medicines Association (EGA) with the goal of representing the emerging generic industry, and later growing to include biosimilar medicines to its portfolio. As the pharmaceutical industry and the healthcare environment within which it operates have evolved, so has our Association.

When the EGA was first launched back in 1993, generic alternatives to branded medicines made up a fraction of the market. As more of these medicines came off-patent, and the benefits and value of generics to both patients and healthcare providers became clearer, so the provision of generic medicines has increased dramatically.

Our members provide the essential medicines that European patients, healthcare professionals and healthcare systems rely on to treat the most acute and chronic diseases ailments covering a wide range of diseases from cardiovascular, to diabetes and cancer. Better access to the most effective therapies means millions more patients are getting better and living longer, while healthcare inequalities are being reduced.

We now supply over 67% of all medicines in Europe, and over the last ten years, generic medicines have increased access to medicines by over 100% in 7 key therapeutic areas. For the treatment of high blood pressure alone, almost 50 million patients are taking generics each day, and 20 million people across Europe are now being treated for diabetes with generics. (See our IMS infographic on the Role of Generic Medicines in Sustaining Healthcare Systems.)

Technological advances and innovation have had a massive impact on the pharmaceutical industry, including the development of new and highly innovative biologic medicines – a medicine whose active substance is produced by or extracted from a biological source. We have responded to this opportunity with biosimilar medicines – medicines that are highly similar to existing biological medicines, without any meaningful difference in terms of efficacy. With more than 10 years of positive patient and treatment experience in the market, the first biosimilar medicine was approved by the EU in 2006, and the use of biosimilar medicines is expected to result in savings of up to €33.4 billion for 8 EU countries up to 2020.

More recently, we have expanded into value added medicines aimed at optimizing, rethinking and reinventing existing medicines based on known molecules, addressing unmet medical needs of patients through improved care delivery systems. Value added medicines deliver relevant additional improvement for patients, healthcare professionals and/or payers. Benefits include improved efficacy, safety and tolerability profile, better adherence, better quality of life, better convenience of use and/or patient preference. As a novel contribution to the prevention of therapeutic escalation, the rationale use of medicines and improving equity, value added medicines are expected to be play a key role in improving efficiencies of Europe’s health care system.

Our Values – Our 5 Pillars

View our factsheet on Medicines for Europe’s 5 Pillars

Patient access to medicines significantly increases when generic, biosimilar and value added medicines enter the market, which now represents 80% of healthcare needs, ensuring the highest levels of quality, safety and efficacy is the highest priority for our members. Our industry is fully committed to working with European and national regulators to meet and maintain Europe’s stringent regulatory standards and to promote these standards globally. We can proudly say that millions of European patients today have benefited from better access to gold standard therapies as a result of the use of generic and biosimilar medicines today.

Our industry is also creating economic value by increasing the supply of medicines through a more competitive market, reducing the pressure on public and private healthcare budgets, and generating new employment, manufacturing and investment opportunities. We are making a very significant direct contribution to the European economy through our 400 European manufacturing sites and the more than 190,000 people employed in high-quality technology jobs. Our members are also investing heavily in R&D – up to 17% of turnover – into generic, biosimilar and value added medicines.

Generic medicines, and increasingly biosimilar and value added medicines, are fundamental to the sustainability of healthcare systems: allowing providers to respond to the long-term challenges of an ageing population, increased incidences of chronic diseases, and budgetary constraints compounded by the high cost of new branded medicines.

Thanks to competition from our members patients’ access to high-quality medicines has doubled over the last ten years with no impact on treatment costs – driving efficiencies and reducing avoidable costs for healthcare systems through improved medical adherence and better patient outcomes. Without generic medicines European healthcare providers would have had to pay an additional €100 billion for medicines in 2014.

With our deep expertise and knowledge, we are committed to working in partnership with the healthcare community and policy makers to create better access and better health for all European citizens. Our association is actively engaged in stakeholder and regulatory dialogues – providing objective and accurate information to help improve access to high quality medicines and create a more stable and competitive pharmaceutical markets in Europe.

Generic medicines are now the cornerstone of European healthcare, the biosimilar sector is developing rapidly, and the need for value added medicines is further transforming the industry. These medicines offer an incredible opportunity to further increase the value obtained from healthcare expenditure and safeguard the sustainability of Europe’s healthcare systems for generations to come. Translating this potential into better access and better health is the purpose of Medicines for Europe.

Members

Become a member

I. Member Companies

II. Affiliate Members

III. Partner Members

IV. National Associations – Full Members

V. National Associations – Affiliate Members

Medicines for Europe is an international non-profit organisation under Belgian law (AISBL).

Medicines for Europe is a founding member of the International Generic and Biosimilar Pharmaceutical Alliance (IGBA) and is non-State actor in official relations with WHO.

Medicines for Europe has subscribed to the Transparency register (Transparency register number: 48325781850-28) set up and operated by the European Parliament and the European Commission.

Medicines for Europe is also member of the EUnetHTA Stakeholder Forum, a network of government-appointed organisations (from EU Member States, EEA and Accession countries) and a large number of relevant regional agencies and non-for-profit organisations that produce or contribute to HTA in Europe.