20th Birthday of KCE

On the 30th of November, we celebrated the 20th anniversary of the KCE (Centre of Expertise in Health Care). It was a very enlightening day where several speakers really insisted on the need for evidence-based medicine, not only in Belgium but also in Europe.

A good way to achieve this is to increase funding for non-commercial, pragmatic, randomised clinical trials. Academics have an important role to play in generating evidence, as does the EMA in ensuring that the pharmaceutical industry generates sufficient evidence before a product is submitted for approval. It is not enough to show that a new medicine works in a highly selected population without comparing it to its competitor. The EMA will play a crucial role in this matter with the new HTA regulation and the new pharmaceutical legislation. Let's hope that loggyist will not reduce this ambition.