The EuroMedicines Project

The EuroMedicines Project created a single drug directory at a single time point (late 1998) to cover most of the member states of the European Union (EU) and some of the candidate states, so as to aid drug regulators, physicians and patients. It shows the wide variations in availability of medicines across Europe, e.g. there were 1974 active drugs with 18 554 branded products in Germany, compared to 1041 active drugs and 1954 products in Sweden. Only 7% of all active ingredients were available in all EU members. Among antimigraine drugs, triptans were widely available, but there were differences in licensed doses and in the ranges of products in different countries. These differences seem to have little scientific basis and to arise from different historical, cultural and commercial influences in each market. EuroMedicines Project will be a useful resource for exploring these issues.