The 17th EGA (European Generics Medicines Association) Conference gave Island-based firm PPP an excellent opportunity to meet existing and new clients, and to further develop an understanding of customers’ needs. That’s the view of PPP General Manager Matthew McSevney who attended the conference in Lisbon with Steve Proudlove, the company’s Head of Pharmacovigilance. The EGA is the official representative body of the European generic pharmaceutical industry, which is at the forefront of providing high-quality affordable medicines across Europe and also works to stimulate competitiveness and innovation in the pharmaceutical sector. PPP was one of the sponsors of this year’s conference and a key area of discussion was the challenge faced by the generics industry as margins become ever smaller. Mr McSevney commented: “At this year’s EGA there was concern regarding cost sensitivity in the generics industry. Outsourcing pharmacovigilance to companies such as PPP can be a cost effective and efficient way of controlling compliance costs. For example, we have been working hard to help clients prepare for new European legislation which will be implemented in 2012. Our clients can be confident in PPP’s ability to help them make a smooth transition to adapt their businesses to comply with the new legislation, but we also recognise that they have to work within strict financial constraints. So it is equally important that we strike a balance in the service level we provide to ensure our clients do not incur unforeseen charges for compliance.” He added that this year’s EGA was once again an excellent opportunity to meet clients old and new and thanked them all for attending. Presentations during the two-day conference highlighted the outstanding growth of the generics industry over the past decade as the demand has grown for affordable drugs. In Europe generics represents 50% of the volume of all medicine but only accounts for 18% of expenditure in the EU with the global generic market worth US$131 billion in 2010 and predicted to grow to $300 billion by 2020. Steve Proudlove said that pharmacovigilance is a sector of growing significance to the Isle of Man, so PPP being represented at the EGA annual conference was important to the company and the Island. PPP is a specialist in pharmacovigilance and works as a consultancy for pharmaceutical companies to detect and assess any safety concerns which may relate to prescription drugs. Its work involves monitoring potential long term and short term side effects of medicines which it does by gathering data from a wide range of sources across the world. This data is then used to highlight any concerns about the safety of particular drugs or medicines and manufacturers can then analyse data to decide whether recalls of drugs are necessary. PPP also offers risk management planning, auditing and training. - ENDS -