Opportunity to promote good antibiotics prescription practices, says EGA

The European Generic medicines Association (EGA) used the platform of European Antibiotic Awareness Day yesterday to highlight the need for good prescription practices and compliance. Good compliance with the use of antibiotic medicines is the biggest step in preventing antimicrobial resistance and patients should carefully follow the advice of their doctor or pharmacist.

The strategy to develop new antibiotics should be executed by public-private partnership and incentives should be disconnected from sales and commercial reward such as extending exclusivity, the EGA said. Antibiotic medicines are essential for public health and generic medicines ensure their availability to all patients across Europe.

Risks of exclusivities increasing health care costs

“Whilst supportive of efforts to develop new antibiotic medicines, governments should be mindful of the risks of extending exclusivities that would increase costs on health care budgets and limit access to medicines for patients,” commented Adrian van den Hoven, EGA director general. The EGA would welcome an open dialogue with patients, doctors, the pharmacist community, payers, industry and policy makers to reflect on common policies to address this issue benefiting from the partners’ experience and expertise to ensure greater patient health outcome, he said.

European Antibiotic Awareness Day is a European Health initiative celebrated annually on November 18 to raise awareness of the increase of antibiotic resistance and to encourage rational antibiotic use. The latest data confirms that, across the European Union, the number of patients infected by resistant bacteria is increasing and that antibiotic resistance is a major threat to public health. Rational use of antibiotics can help stop resistant bacteria from developing and will help keep antibiotics effective for future generations.