8 June 2006

Professor Richard Laing from the World Health Organization presented a report today titled ‘Priority Medicines for Europe and the World’. He highlighted the need for increased R&D to address the global public health threats resulting from lack of innovation in the development of effective medicines to treat common diseases for which there are limited choices available.

Speaking at the 2006 National Medicines Symposium in Canberra, Professor Laing stated that pharmaceutical gaps exist as a result of biological challenges and market failure. The highest priorities globally are the public health threats caused by antibiotic resistance, pandemic influenza, cardiovascular disease and neglected diseases.

“The problem of antibiotic resistance is due in part that infectious diseases are a low burden which removes the incentive for R&D. Most antibiotics are also inexpensive thus removing incentives to create new antibiotics. Furthermore, antibiotics are widely misused resulting in resistance. This lack of R&D on antibiotics has consequences for future generations with the global increase in the spread of drug-resistant bacteria” said Professor Laing.

“There is a possibility that in 50 years time we could be living in a world without antibiotics which will be a worse place than before the creation of antibiotics.

“We are overdue for a new pandemic influenza. I am not saying that the avian flu will be the cause but we have poor uptake of vaccines and the current capacity to produce either vaccines or antiviral medicines is not sufficient.

In the western world stroke, heart attack, smoking related conditions, alcoholic liver disease, osteoarthritis and Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, diabetes and depression all require development of effective medicines. The pharmaceutical gaps in the treatment of these prevalent diseases need to be addressed through research by the pharmaceutical industry” concluded Professor Laing.

The WHO report also classified ‘neglected diseases’ to include Malaria, Tuberculosis, Leishmaniasis, and Post-partum haemorrhage which is a major cause of maternal mortality in developing countries.

Special needs for women, children and the elderly have also been neglected in drug development.

The full report is now available http://mednet3.who.int/prioritymeds/report/index.htm

The National Medicines Symposium is a biennial event hosted by the National Prescribing Service Ltd (NPS) and the Pharmaceutical Health And Rational use of Medicines (PHARM) Committee. This event showcases QUM programs and activities by all QUM and health stakeholders to demonstrate the important role QUM plays in the health of all Australians.

ENDS

NPS is an independent, non-profit organisation for Quality Use of Medicines, funded by the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing.