The European Parliament votes for new jobs in the EU Generic and Biosimilar medicines industries

The European Parliament voted on 9 June 2015 in Brussels the report of Ms Mosca “Strategy for the Protection and Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights in Third Countries” which calls on the Commission to stimulate early export of generic and biosimilar medicines to countries where no patent or supplementary protection certificates (SPC) exist. The export of generic and biosimilar medicines to non-EU countries during the SPC period will stimulate investments in Europe, support the creation of highly skilled jobs and increase access to high quality medicines in third countries without changing the equilibrium between the originator and the generic & biosimilar medicines industries in the EU. An SPC export exception will create a €5.1 billion business value and allow the EU generic and biosimilar medicines industries to create up to 67.000 high-tech jobs in the EU and over 60 new companies [1]. It will also stimulate additional insourcing of pharmaceutical R&D back in Europe as R&D and manufacturing are often conducted on the same sites. “We congratulate Ms Mosca for her report and welcome the European Parliament’s vote in favour of more pharmaceutical manufacturing jobs in Europe through an SPC export exception” said Adrian van den Hoven, EGA Director General, and BGPharmA is one of EGA’s members. “Now we wait for the Commission to introduce this strong trade stimulus to spur high-tech job creation and economic growth in Europe”. _______________________________________________________________________ [1] Vanda Vicente and Sergio Simoes, 2014, Manufacturing and export provisions: Impact on the competitiveness of European pharmaceutical manufacturers and on the creation of jobs in Europe. ___________________________________________________________________________ BGPharmA (Bulgarian Generic Pharmaceutical Association) is an association that brings together and represents the European generic pharmaceutical industry in Bulgaria. EGA (European Generic and Biosimilar Medicines Association) is the official representative of the European generic and biosimilar medicines industries in Brussels. Both associations (Bulgarian and European) seek to create a regulatory and market environment in favour of providing high quality and affordable medicines to patients and to promote competition in the pharmaceutical sector.