Brussels, 07/09/2011 (Agence Europe) - The current revision of two European directives that are crucial to successful research into blood-related diseases must ensure the safety of patients and enhance their access to vitally-important treatment. This was a key message of a two-day conference, Haematology and the next European decade, hosted by the European Parliament and organised by the European Cancer Patient Coalition (ECPC) and the European Haematology Association. It was attended by members of the medical profession, politicians, researchers, parliamentarians and patients' organisations.
The revision of the Clinical Trials Directive, which provides the regulatory framework for the testing of new drugs on humans, has reached its final stages before a draft law is proposed by the European Commission within the next few months. There is a clear consensus among all stakeholders that the existing processes are overly bureaucratic, costly and time-consuming. “If we want to keep modern scientific research in Europe, we need to modernise our directive”, said Philippe Juvin MEP, the European Parliament's rapporteur on the revision. Researchers and patients' organisations, however, insist that seeking to reduce costs and simplify the rules must not compromise patient safety. The changes must also aim to reverse the economic pressure on independent academic research - “squeezing academic research into a commercial strait-jacket” - and so facilitate a rich source of new treatments for blood-related diseases, especially rare forms of cancer. Both haematology researchers and patient organisations voiced concerns that respect for the free movement of medical professionals in Europe should not compromise standards of competence that could impact the safety and quality of patient care. An ECPC press release concludes: “It is literally vital for patients that any new EU legislation should improve co-operation for more and better-targeted funding for research in haematology, allowing haematologists to secure the research resources they need to help patients access the best possible expertise and treatment.” (I.L./transl.fl)