14 April 2000
A small industry with a proud record: butfor how long, new NOAH chairman warns
Sam Black, newly elected chairmanof the National Office of Animal Health, gave an impassioned defence of theanimal health industry, at the associations annual dinner in London on 13April.
He said that animal medicines wereneeded for healthy animals, which in turn provided healthy food. But the faceof the industry had changed beyond recognition, and over-regulation was indanger of strangling its proud record. He called upon Baroness Hayman, MAFFMinister of State (Lords) to help the producers, users and regulators of thesevital products to work together to resolve some of the issues which surroundthem.
Since Mr Black joined the animalmedicines industry 9 years ago, he said that the number of major animal healthcompanies had reduced by half and that only a handful were still involved inresearch. Not one British human pharmaceutical company is still left with ananimal health interest. If we add upall the POM sales in veterinary medicine, the turnover is 290,000,000. By contrast, there is a single product onthe human side of the business with a turnover of 265,000,000 - worth almost the whole of the UK animalhealth industry! he said.
Mr Black said that as thecomplexion of the industry was changing, the tiny markets for many productsmade them more and more difficult to support: There are 60 POM products with aturnover greater than 1,000,000. By contrast,there are over 400 products with turnover of less than 1,000,000. And with 15member states implementing their own interpretation of legislation, there wereeven more problems. The greater theburden of legislation, the greater the risk becomes to these products in thefuture, said Mr Black.
The industry has an impressiverecord of success. Foot and mouth is no longer a problem. Swine fever is allbut eradicated. Brucellosis in cattle is a thing of the past. The consumersfavourite meat is now chicken, but it is the coccidiostats that this industryproduce that makes this possible. And the Pet Travel Scheme could never havebeen introduced without rabies vaccines produced by the industry.
The industry was created and builton good and transparent science. It ispeer reviewed and serves no political agenda and it is on these criteria itshould be judged, not on consumerism and a disproportionate precautionaryprinciple, he said.
However, we believe in and supportgood regulation, but there has to be a balance between the science, thepolitics and the economics.
What we require is greatertransparency, stability and predictability of the approval system, said MrBlack and he asked the Minister to help by facilitating the opportunities wherethe industry, the profession, the politicians and regulators could meet to tryand resolve some of these issues.
The reduction in the number ofcompanies has reduced the total amount of money available overall for research.The burden of regulation is such that it is now estimated that in Europe 40%of all R&D is committed to defending existing products leaving even lessfor innovation, he said. By contrast,in the US only 17% goes on product defence.
The global market was dependent onthe large animal sector survival: it is split into three - Europe, America andAsia. The demand for pet care products in Asia and Latin America are virtuallynon existent, said Mr Black. This industry needs a large animal sector tosurvive!
There is a balance between animalwelfare on the one hand and consumer safety, user safety and environmentalsafety on the other and I would suggest that the scales have tipped too far,he said.
Lets not forget why this industrywas created in the first place - it was to ensure we had healthy animals whichin turn provided a healthy supply of food.Without it, we would be
forced to source our food fromother countries where the standard is sometimes not up to that of our own andas a consequence, it would be those very consumers and animals which it was setup to protect that would suffer.
They say you never miss the wateruntil the well is dry. We can see theeffects of drought in the medicines availability crisis - lets hope we heedthe warning before its to late.
Ends
Notes for Editors
1. For further informationcontact Roger Cook or Alison Glennon on 020 8367 3131, or e-mail noah@noah.co.uk or visit the NOAHwebsite www.noah.co.uk
2. TheNational Office of Animal Health was formed on 1 January 1986 to represent theUK companies which research, develop, manufacture and market licensed animalhealth products. The association has 36 corporate members and 11 associatemembers. In 1999 NOAH's members accounted for around 95% of the 371 million UKanimal health market, with additional valuable exports.