14/10/2008 (Agence Europe) - The Association Internationale de la Mutualité (AIM) and the European Social Insurance Platform (ESIP) have published a press release on the conclusions of the Pharmaceutical Forum - the reflection process on information, the prices of medicines and their relative effectiveness, which lasted three years and came to an end on 2 October (see EUROPE 9752). The two organisations regret that discussions were “dominated by market-driven interests to the detriment of public health interests”. They oppose the Commission proposals to ease the current legal framework to allow the pharmaceutical industry to provide information on medicines to patients. AIM and ESIP call for greater transparency on medicines' ingredients and costs. They believe, too, that clinical trials of new products should always compare them to the best available treatment in order to determine whether or not they provide real therapeutic progress. (O.J./transl.rt)