Publications

This paper explores the practice of switching patients between different medicines or medical therapies and/or using different therapies interchangeably. It outlines how therapeutic switching and interchange – for both chemical-based and biological drugs – is becoming a key tactic for healthcare bodies in implementing more cost-effective prescription policies. The paper surveys 5 countries – the US, Canada, the UK, Spain and Sweden – where switching and substitution policies are being actively used.

By and large, this paper has found that, in the surveyed countries, regulators and health policymakers have taken a much more active role with regard to formulating switching policies for biologics and biosimilars than they have with chemical-based drugs. The paper also makes a number of policy recommendations on how switching practices can be improved and, in particular, how patient safety and comfort can be better incorporated into the switching process.

This was published by the Stockholm Network in June 2010.

Gesundheit! is the Stockholm Network`s bi-monthly newsletter that highlights developments in contemporary European health and welfare policy. Issue 7 focuses on the debate surrounding cross-border healthcare and contains three exclusive interviews with leading figures involved in the discussion. The cross-border healthcare debate questions whether patients should have the right to access the same healthcare entitlements they receive at home all the way through the European Union. Traditionally, this right was not guaranteed through the European Union, however successive European Court of Justice cases are forcing the EU to clarify the rights of patients.

The full contents of the newsletter are as follows:

• Commentary: By Helen Disney, chief executive and founder of the Stockholm Network;
  

• Topic of the Month: Paul Healy, policy analyst of the Stockholm Network, identifies the features of the cross-border healthcare debates and analyses the main objections further EU action on the issue;
  

• Interview: With Jean Lambert MEP, vice-president of the Greens–European Free Alliance and a member of the Employment and Social Affairs committee in the European Parliament;
  

• Interview: With Karsten Uno Petersen, consultant for the Denmark Regional Council and the Committee of the Region’s rapporteur for the EU health strategy and Directive on safe, high-quality and efficient cross-border healthcare;
  

• Interview: With Pascal Garel, chief executive of the European Hospital and Healthcare Federation, a European non-profit association that represents national hospital and healthcare services in Europe;
  

• Publications Polybrief: Cross-Border Healthcare by Stockholm Network, which analyses how the cross-border directive could affect how health technology assessment (HTA) is performed in the EU;
  

• Publications The Cost of Cancer by Policy Exchange, which identifies the true cost of cancer on the UK health system and offers key recommendations as to how to tackle threat of cancer and the costs that are associated with the disease.

  
  This was published by the Stockholm Network in June 2010.
  
  

The full contents of the newsletter are as follows:

• Commentary – Balancing innovation and public safety with effective enforcement in the new ACTA agreement – by Dr Meir Pugatch and Helen Disney;
  

• Topic of the Month – Regulating Internet piracy: Different European approaches – by Mairead Lynn;
  

• Experts’ Corner – Patents and clean energy: a follow-up – by Dr Konstantinos Karachalios;
  

• Views – Bilski v Kappos: Discussing the future of business-method and process-oriented patents – by Rachel Chu;
  

• New and Notable – Challenges in IP education: Maastricht University’s New Masters in Intellectual Property Law and Knowledge Management – by Anselm Kamperman Sanders;
  

• New Publication by the Stockholm Network – Standards, Competition and Innovation;
  

• Upcoming Event – Intellectual Property, Open Source and Standards: Friends or Foes?;
  

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

  
  This was published by the Stockholm Network in May 2010.
  
  

The Stockholm Network is delighted to announce a new policy briefing note, which explores health technology assessment (HTA) in Europe and the moves currently being explored by the European Union towards greater collaboration. As well as providing background to the growth of HTA in Europe, the Polybrief also outlines the main arguments for and against EU cooperation.

Ultimately, the Polybrief concludes that the EU needs to be more realistic about what it wants to achieve and how far it can realistically go and specifically that individual appraisals should remain an activity at the national level and ultimately the impetus and scope of those assessments should remain with the national authority.

This was published by the Stockholm Network in May 2010.

This Stockholm Network Polybrief explores the debate into standards, competition and innovation. Stockholm Network Polybriefs provide concise summary of pressing issues and debate throughout Europe.

In addition to providing a background to the relationship between intellectual property rights and open standards, the Polybrief also explores the debate between open and proprietary-based standards, as well as identifying and outlining new governmental approaches to standards.

This was published by the Stockholm Network in April 2010.

In this spring issue, we look at a range of topics including a thought-provoking article on the great paradox of future capitalism by Marc De Vos, a professor at Ghent University and the general director of Itinera Institute, a Brussels-based think tank. The books Freedom, Inc, by Brian M. Carney and Isaac Getz, and Far och Flyg!, by Maria Rankka, Andres Ystedt and Fredrik Johansson, are both reviewed. There is also an article about innovation and a preview of the latest publication from our CEE Ahead project. In addition, three of our member think tanks from Montenegro, Czech Republic and Belgium are profiled.

This was published by the Stockholm Network in March 2010.

This CEE Ahead publication assesses the future for Central and Eastern European (CEE) healthcare reform in light of a financial crisis that has exposed the fragility of public budgets. The financial crisis is raining down on the public purses of CEE countries and governments are struggling to provide adequate protection for their citizens. The paper argues that if CEE countries are to weather this storm, there is now a need to consider new ways of providing healthcare:

• By encouraging open competition in healthcare;
  
• By allowing greater use of public-private partnerships; and
  
• By fostering more varied sources of healthcare funding;
  

Ultimately, the paper argues that the CEE region now has an opportunity for healthcare reforms to develop and the financial crisis, however unwelcome, provides an incentive to begin. Whilst the problem will undoubtedly be finding the political will, it should not be overlooked that reform presents the best chance for establishing health systems that are fit to help and cure citizens in the difficult years to come.

The Stockholm Network bi-monthly newsletter Gesundheit! highlights developments in contemporary European health and welfare policy and Volume 1, Issue 6, focuses on healthcare and the financial crisis.

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

• Commentary: Crisis Management in Healthcare Policymaking by Helen Disney;
  

• Topic of the Month: Financial Crisis and Healthcare in Central and Eastern Europe by Paul Healy;
  

• Briefing: Devolved healthcare – the Spanish way by Cristina Palomares;
  

• Review: Health Consumer Powerhouse’s Euro Health Consumer Index 2009 by Adrienne Cernigoi;
  

• Stockholm Network Publications and Events: Biogenerics or Biosimilars? Discussing the Present, Considering the Future and Keeping Medicines Safe – A Study of the Regulations Guiding the Approval of Medicines in Emerging Markets;

This paper has attempted to show, firstly, just how serious a threat substandard and counterfeited medicines are to public health and, secondly, to discuss how the regulations of the production, sale and use of medicines can have an impact on the availability of these dangerous drugs.

The paper began by examining the very nature of medical and pharmaceutical regulations: Why are they necessary? What are the concepts and ideas drug regulations are based on? And what are some of the essential best practices? It then moved on to examining how drug regulations have been designed in a number of countries (China, India, Brazil, Argentina and Turkey) which have experienced problems with substandard and counterfeited drugs.

This paper explores the issue of promoting biomedical innovation, particularly via national policy tools. Specifically, the paper analyses five categories of key components of biomedical innovation: human capital and infrastructure; R&D; protection of intellectual property; the regulatory and clinical environment; and market incentives for R&D. It also discusses policy measures taken by a range of countries including Singapore, Scotland, Ireland, Israel, Québec, Germany, France, Sweden, the UK and the US. Ultimately, it proposes a set of best practices that countries should aim for in order to sufficiently support and promote biomedical innovation.

The paper also examines various elements that may make national innovations strategies distinct from one another, including a country or region’s particular strengths and weaknesses vis-à-vis different factors of biomedical innovation. It argues that despite distinct national environments for biomedical innovation, the best practices identified in the paper should serve to provide policymakers with a starting point for creating effective national strategies.