The European Medicines Agency (EMEA) has recommended the withdrawal of the marketing authorisations for all lumiracoxib-containing medicines, because of the risk of serious side effects affecting the liver. Lumiracoxib is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) that belongs to the group 'COX-2 inhibitors'. It is used for symptomatic relief in the treatment of osteoarthritis of the hip and knee.

European consumers have been a longneglected piece of the strategic puzzle for most marketers at health and pharmaceutical companies. Yet, signs increasingly point to the degree to which European consumers are, in fact, researching health information and treatment options, and ultimately taking action as a result of those information searches - as outlined in the trend above.

The Internet's role is increasing in the patient-physician relationship and having an impact on which treatment decisions are being implemented. Still, the physician clearly remains the ultimate voice on this front. Be they the "cyberchondriacs" or the "cyber savvy," consumers in Europe are turning to the Internet for self-education, symptom checking, prescription medication comparisons, and disease education.

Traditionally, physicians relied primarily on local content sources for online medical information, such as DiarioMedico in Spain and Doctors.net in the UK. One notable exception of a site that has transcended the country divides has been the Univadis portal from MSD (Merck Sharp & Dohme).

While the market for electronic detailing in the U.S. has reached nearly a point of saturation at roughly half of all practicing physicians, the European market is still in an early stage of development and adoption. In fact, only 15% of European physicians have participated in an electronic detailing program today, a number that has remained statistically stagnant year over year.

Traditionally, pharmaceutical companies had a limited array of sources available to them to communicate with physicians - the sales force, dinner meetings, conferences, and sponsorships. But today's European physician is media savvy and interested in receiving content from a wide variety of professional information and clinical news sources.

Cybercitizen® Health Europe is a syndicated multi-client study and advisory service focused on key research topics and trends impacting the European consumer health marketplace. The study was fielded online among 4,302 European consumers from the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, Italy, France, Belgium, Sweden, the Netherlands, Poland and Portugal. The survey instrument was presented in the native language of each individual country.