Meanwhile,progress has been made in granting marketing authorisation procedures throughout Europe. The
"4-year-gap" has been reduced over time to a
15-month gap, but still, recent studies show that delays are still too long, and that patients in some European countries have to wait for well over a year before they can benefit from new medicines commonly prescribed to patients in other countries.
The final aim of the
Patients WAIT Indicator is to provide a basis for a joint debate between the pharmaceutical industry and national competent authorities, with a view to searching for sustainable solutions aimed at reducing to a minimum, the administrative delays that unduly delay patient access to these medicines.
The latest edition -
the Patients' W.A.I.T. Indicator - Report 2009 - shows that, depending on the patients' country of residence, doctors would be able to prescribe between
47% and 90% of the new medicines with a valid EU marketing authorisation granted between 1 January 2006 and 31 December 2008. For those new medicines that doctors can prescribe under the national healthcare provisions, average time elapsing between the date of EU market authorisation and the "accessibility" date in 15 European countries will vary from 101 to 412 days.