BPI calls for preservation of ZB Med

06.06.2016 11:15

With a statement, the Federal Association of the Pharmaceutical Industry (BPI) appeals for the preservation of the German Central Library of Medicine (ZB MED). “The loss of ZB MED’s offerings would enormously restrict literature procurement for the entire pharmaceutical industry. There is a threat of an information desert,” said Dr. Boris Thurisch, BPI business unit manager for drug safety/pharmacovigilance. The Senate of the Leibniz Association had recommended the closure of the specialist facility. A decision will be made in mid-June as to whether the funding will expire at the end of 2016.

The Leibniz Association's reason for recommending the closure of ZB MED is a lack of research performance. For Thurisch, this is a wrong signal: “The quick and uncomplicated provision of specialist literature by ZB MED serves patient safety in the long term, as the database enables cases of undesirable drug reactions to be processed and assessed efficiently.” In its statement, the BPI therefore calls for the Joint Scientific Conference (GWK), the state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the Federal Ministry of Health (BMG) to work towards maintaining the ZB MED, especially for the literature supply and the LIVIVO search portal.

Pharmaceutical companies are required by law to search scientific literature on a weekly basis for suspected cases of adverse drug reactions and changes in the benefit-risk profile. In addition to large international and commercial providers, ZB MED is the central and cross-publisher source for medical literature. In the ZB MED, 2,700 journals are exclusively nationally owned, including local German-language literature, which is generally not available in international databases. Experience has shown that in some cases this local literature can only be obtained via ZB MED. In addition, ZB MED provides an infrastructure for the publication of German research results, including long-term archiving of research data.

ZB MED is currently financially supported by the federal and state governments. The ZB MED is one of 89 members of the Leibniz Association as a community of jointly financed institutions recognized by the federal and state governments in accordance with Article 91b of the Basic Law, such as MPG, Helmholtz and Fraunhofer. If no restructuring takes place and no other provider is found for the specialist facility, the future of ZB MED is very uncertain.