Publications

The Stockholm Network Patient Safety Series puts patients’ wellbeing and better quality of care at the heart of all our policy recommendations. Our latest paper in this series, What Lies Within? Procurement processes and the risk of substandard medicines, which we launch today, is built on previous publications in 2010 and 2011 that aimed to re-introduced the topic of substandard medicines to European policymakers. Both these papers described how the spread of substandard medicines is a serious public health issue in many developing and emerging economies.

What Lies Within? discusses the spread of counterfeit and substandard medicines focusing specifically on the procurement process. Through case studies in 12 key countries this paper details how in a number of developing economies and emerging markets, counterfeit and substandard medicines are able to penetrate the pharmaceutical supply chain through poor procurement processes. It also outlines how global standards and guidelines for pharmaceutical procurement are both widely available and comprehensive. The paper concludes that systems of pharmaceutical procurement vary and must be viewed within the broader context of a country although there exists a gold standard for pharmaceutical procurement which both emerging and developing countries can make use of. Furthermore, improving procurement standards and focusing on procuring the highest quality medicines is an effective way of limiting the spread and use of substandard and counterfeit medicines and therefore of protecting patients. The paper offers constructive policy recommendations on how governments can generally improve their systems of pharmaceutical procurement and drug quality standards.

On the launch of the EU’s “Year of Active Ageing”, this edition of Gesundheit! is dedicated to the issue of ageing. It features two articles by speakers at a recent event in Brussels held by the Stockholm Network on the topic. Rebecca Taylor, formerly senior researcher of the International Longevity Centre – UK, writes about the life-course approach to ageing and Paul Healy, senior researcher of the Stockholm Network, writes about the likely policy challenges and choices in the future..

In addition, this edition includes a “Health of the Nation” section on Germany, profiling policy reforms and challenges. It also provides some brief snapshots about healthcare news in the EU member states and details about a recent Stockholm Network paper and event.

The full contents of this edition, as well as their contributors, are as follows:

• Commentary by Helen Disney;
  
• Changing our mindset: A life course approach to ageing by Rebecca Taylor;
  
• Ageing and its consequences by Paul Healy;
  
• Health of the Nation: Germany;
  
• Recent Developments;
  
• Stockholm Network Event:Is Ageing Good For Us?; and
  
• Stockholm Network Publications: Which Price is Right?.
  

This is the latest publication of the Stockholm Network`s newest programme on Health Technology Assessment (HTA) and pharmaceutical pricing. Which Price is Right? is an extensive study into the regulations around the price of pharmaceuticals in Europe and North America, identifying a pricing spectrum that balances between controlled prices set by healthcare payers and market-based prices set by manufacturers.

It argues that Europe currently finds itself in a position where it is getting "more for less" in regards to pharmaceuticals, although in doing so it relies on more market-based environments, such as the United States, to progress the research into much needed innovations. Although it may not seem so initially to policymakers, this is ultimately identified as problematic for two reasons.

Firstly, it puts European nations in a position where they can be accused of “free-riding” on patients in the US and thus not paying their fair share towards the current cost of developing medicines that are of value to the entire globe, not least to their own patients. Secondly, it means that European nations have surrendered some autonomy over their healthcare systems by placing the burden for medical innovation on the shoulders of others, whilst leaving themselves susceptible to changes in pharmaceuticals regulations over which they have no authority.

First published by the Stockholm Network in December 2011.

This issue of Eye on Europe on population ageing is both timely and worrying. There is a general belief that getting old is a bad thing. Indeed, the issue of an ever older population, especially in Europe, is going to affect us all. In an inspiring opening article by our director of research, Dr Meir Pugatch, we can see that as individuals and also as a society we can reverse this negative trend. Our senior researcher Paul Healy also offers a note on the issue of ageing.

The issue features our collaboration with the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation in organising the Centennial Celebration events that took place in London on July 4, and 3 additional events that the Foundation organised in other European countries. In our think tank profile, we take a look at the work of the Group for Legal and Political Studies (GLPS), based in Pristina, Kosovo and of the London-based think tank Polietia. And as usual we have all the latest regular features with our section on “Who Governs Europe” which, as we explain on the backcover, has now become a website in its own right.

Last but not least, in this issue we re-publish the foreword to the Slovak edition of The Tragedy of the Euro by Philipp Bagus written by Juraj Karpis, founding member of one of our Slovak member think tanks, the Institute of Economic and Social Studies (INESS), followed by a review of the book itself.

This fifteenth edition of Climate of Opinion looks at the future of nuclear power in Europe, following events earlier this year in Fukushima.

The contents of this issue and the contributors are as follows:

• Commentary by Helen Disney, CEO of the Stockholm Network;
  
• Briefing – The disaster in Fukushima and the response in Europe by Paul Healy, Stockholm Network;
  
• Thorium: How to save Europe’s nuclear revival by Stephen Tindale, associate fellow at the Centre for European Reform;
  
• Renewables in a post-Fukushima Europe by Gulya Isyanova, communications manager at Partnerships for Renewables;
  
• Recent publications: WIPO Global Challenges Report: Intellectual Property and the Transfer of Environmentally Sound Technologies by Dr Meir Pugatch, director of research of the Stockholm Network;
  
• Microclimates: Recent energy and environment developments;
  
  This was published by the Stockholm Network in September 2011.
  
  

This issue of Know IP looks to reflect on the level of maturity we have reached in debating the relationship between IPRs and competition.

The full contents of the newsletter are as follows:

• Commentary: We came a long way, and there is still a long way to go - by Dr Meir Pugatch and Helen Disney;
  

• Topic of the Month: Net neutrality: Responsible traffic management for a congested internet by Matt Hayward;
  

• Experts’ Corner: Standardising the standardisation process? What next for IPRs, competition and innovation? by Stockholm Network;
  

• Views: Taming the wild west: The cloud, intellectual property and data privacy by Rachel Chu; UK Intellectual Property: Fit for the Digital Age? by Paul Healy;
  

• New and Notable: Intellectual Property & the Transfer of Environmentally Sound Technologies by Dr Meir Pugatch;
  

• Newsflashes: Top stories in the world of IP and Competition.

  This was published by the Stockholm Network in July 2011.
  

This issue of the Eye on Europe focuses on the future for the digital economy. The opening article, by Dominique Lazanski, a veteran of Silicon Valley and now a technology policy expert at the Taxpayers’ Alliance, asks where Europe’s digital agenda is heading and questions whether it will lead us in the right direction. On a related note, a recent Stockholm Network event, held in Maastricht with the partnership of Maastricht University and Managing Intellectual Property magazine, looked at the connection between standards, competition and innovation. In this issue we review the event but if you missed it and would like to see the full speeches, you can now access videos of the event via the standards page of our website. In this issue, our spotlight also looks at the European Standardisation Process and asks how best to facilitate the optimum level of co-operation between companies and the wider marketplace for users.

Last but not least on this topic, we review the Second Annual Economic Ideas Forum event that the Stockholm Network recently co-organised with the Centre for European Studies (CES) and Business for New Europe (BNE). This event featured four topical panels comprised of senior politicians from the European Union institutions, national ministers and heads of state, top academics and influential stakeholders. In terms of other events, on our back cover we briefly feature the Reagan Centennial celebration events that the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation organised in partnership with the Stockholm Network.

In our think tank profiles, we take a look at the work of members, iFRAP in France and INESS in Slovakia. And as usual we have all the latest regular features with our section on “Who Governs Europe” and a review of Francis Fukuyama’s latest book The Origins of Political Order. Fukuyama may have predicted the “end of history” but as for Europe’s technological revolution, one could argue that we are still only at the beginning. Let’s hope that the best is yet to come.

Gesundheit! is the Stockholm Network’s bi-monthly newsletter that highlights developments in contemporary European health and welfare policy. Issue 9 focuses on the future of healthcare. An ageing population, coupled with increasing demand for new and innovative health technologies, are likely to put an even greater strain on health budgets. To overcome this challenge, an important discussion is needed now as to the type of reform that is needed to equip healthcare systems for the future.

In addition, this edition introduces a new section entitled “Health of the Nation”, which will profile policy reforms country-by-country, as well as providing some brief snapshots about healthcare news in the EU member states.

The full contents of this edition, as well as their contributors, are as follows:

• Commentary by Helen Disney;
  
• Future of Healthcare by Paul Healy;
  
• Book Review – 2030: The Future of Medicine by Dr Richard Barker;
  
• Health of the Nation: United Kingdom;
  
• Recent Developments;
  
• Stockholm Network Event: The Welfare State After the Crisis; and
  
• Stockholm Network Publications: Keeping Medicines Safe – Extended and A New Value-Based Approach to the Pricing of Branded Medicines.
  

This new issue of Know IP focuses on the close link between intellectual property rights and the international trading system, considering whether IPRs should be regulated by international, regional and bilateral trade agreements.

The full contents of the newsletter are as follows:

• Commentary: IPRs and trade: a forward-looking issue -
  by Dr Meir Pugatch and Helen Disney;
  

• The battle over ACTA in Europe -
  by Paul Healy;
  

• The debate on the TPPA’s IPR chapter -
  by Rachel Chu;
  

• The EU-India FTA and the question of health-related IPRs -
  by the Stockholm Network research team;
  

• Trade-related intellectual property: the EU perspective -
  by Pedro Velasco Martins;
  
• Value for money: getting Europe’s trade and IPR policy right -
  by Fredrik Erixon;
  

• Newsflashes: Top stories in the world of IP and Competition.

  This was published by the Stockholm Network in April 2011.
  

The Stockholm Network Patient Safety Series puts patients’ wellbeing and better quality of care at the heart of all our policy recommendations. As part of this, this paper is a follow-up to our Keeping Medicines Safe paper, which looks at the spread of substandard medicines and highlights the regulations used in the approval, manufacture, sale and use of medicines.

Our last paper, Keeping Medicines Safe, looked at substandards in Argentina, Brazil, China, India and Turkey. This new paper, Keeping Medicines Safe - Extended provides a complement to this with case studies of Egypt, Peru, Russia and Thailand. It concludes that the four countries studied in this paper all have flaws in how they regulate against substandard medicines reaching the market, the proof of which is in the scale of inferior products that are consumed within their healthcare systems today. The paper also offers constructive policy recommendations generally, in regard to tackling the spread of substandards, as well as specifically, in regard to what each individual country should do to best protect their citizens from harm.