Brussels, 20/02/2003 (Agence Europe) - During a meeting organised at the end of January by the Portuguese Medicines Agency (INFARMED) and the European Generic Medicines Association (EGA), in the presence of the Portuguese Minister for Health, Luis Filipe Pereira, representatives from the generic medicines industries and Health Ministers from several Member States, a series of measures were identified in order to put into place national and European plans to strengthen parts of the generic medicines market. The measures aim to: Educate doctors to use INN names; assist doctors to understand the economic implications of prescription decisions; increase the use of electronic prescribing; create substitution lists, increase incentives for generic dispensing and substitution; improve consumer awareness of generic quality and availability; develop pharmacoeconomic evaluation of new products in comparison with existing products; establish generic-orientation reimbursement and health insurance systems; adopt reference pricing and free pricing systems instead of controlled price systems; reduce the time delay between receiving market authorisation for a generic product and gaining pricing, reimbursement and/or substitution status.