EU’s pharma legislative reforms ‘will scare investment away,’ Astellas executive says

Eu­rope is on the brink of wrap­ping up its first ma­jor le­gal and reg­u­la­to­ry re­forms for the phar­ma in­dus­try in about two decades, but some in in­dus­try are say­ing the re­forms may not make the con­ti­nent more at­trac­tive for R&D in­vest­ment.

Be­gin­ning April 10, mem­bers of the Eu­ro­pean Par­lia­ment are sched­uled to de­bate and vote on the leg­isla­tive over­haul at a ple­nary ses­sion. The new reg­u­la­tion and di­rec­tive are meant to make Eu­rope a more at­trac­tive des­ti­na­tion for R&D. And while there’s a lot in the pack­age to be thank­ful for, Claus Ziel­er, chief com­mer­cial of­fi­cer at Astel­las and board rep­re­sen­ta­tive of in­dus­try group EF­PIA, told End­points News in an in­ter­view on Mon­day that the low­er­ing of the da­ta pro­tec­tion pe­ri­od to six months less than what phar­ma com­pa­nies cur­rent­ly en­joy is a non-starter.

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