Estonia, EU – Baltic States, Markets and Companies, Medicine, USA

Veteran reporters Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele mention Estonia in the article “Killing Medicines” as one of the favourite countries for Western firms to conduct medicines testing in, alongside with Russia, Colombia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Serbia, Bulgaria and others where test subjects can be attracted to participate in the studies for relatively small amount of money, where the supervision over the tests is weak and where it is easy to obtain the kind of results that satisfy pharmaceuticals firms, writes LETA.

Estonian Pharmaceuticals Board deputy director general Alar Irs said that Estonia cannot be accused of any of these flaws that the journalists write about. “Estonia and the rest of the European Union are not places where it would be cheap to conduct tests or where it would be easy to get permission for the tests,” he said.

Social Ministry pharmaceuticals department acting head Dagmar Rüütel also said that the Estonian Pharmaceuticals Board or ethics committee are not doing a bad job when giving permissions for medicine testing or in supervising the work. He said that the poor quality of studies would come to light in any case. “This has not occurred in relation with studies conducted in Estonia,” she said.

It is true though that in the second half of 1990s, Western pharmaceuticals giants moved their medicine testing to Eastern Europe, including Estonia, due to developed healthcare system and good work culture there. Rüütel said that Estonia’s advantage was in reasonable balance of quality of studies and price.

While in 1995, the Pharmaceuticals Board received 13 applications for medicine research, the next year it doubled and by 2007 grew to 93. Irs said that the board rejects 1-2 applications a year. The majority of the studies are international and conducted simultaneously in many EU states. “American and European Pharmaceuticals Authorities have inspected the studies in Estonia and have not found anything creating concerns,” Irs said.

In the last three years, the number of applications has fallen, last year to 75. Irs assumed that this is because Eastern Europe isn’t as cheap for large pharmaceuricals firms anymore and they have moved to Russia and Asia.