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Protection of intellectual property

Question: How does the ESOP protect its members and their work results from intellectual exploitation?

Klaus: All colleagues know what has been waiting for them for 24 years. A small membership fee of 5 euros, but the opportunity to contribute both actively and with the support of the community to improving the care of cancer patients. From the very beginning, it was important to us that everyone could formally feel like a member with a small financial contribution and also actively and sustainably exchange ideas with colleagues in working groups. This has resulted in many projects, presentations and publications, and I would like to highlight the long-term studies on the effects of COVID, among other things.

We have never restricted the entire public, but have published all data on our website for everyone to access. Above all, this includes the continuous publication of the QuapoS in over 20 languages.

We have only made the 500-page commentary on the QuapoS available to members, so that everyone has access to their own personal working material. Now, as has been the case since 1996, we are working on the version of QuapoS 7, which can be approved by the delegates at the AGM on October 1 after a long period of committee work.

In connection with the fair treatment of the interested public with our results, however, we have to realize that some people who want to compete with us like to make extensive use of our work results.

Be it in lectures within the EUSOP specialization, in communication with our friendly societies or in other unfriendly actions, there is a misconception that they are trying to achieve supposed advantages for their own organization in the hope of gaining more support from the pharmaceutical industry.

Question: How do you yourself feel about negative behavior?

Klaus: I think that it is not okay to deprive our members of their work in order to gain financial benefits for your own purposes, and for this reason I believe that the people who represent our organization as officers must be clearly and unambiguously committed to the goals of the ESOP.

Reliability and clarity will be honored by all members. We disclose our objectives in publications and our finances in public statements, e.g. in the EU Transparency Register. We do not tolerate corruption or similar misconduct. It is good that the Committee for Fundamental Issues deals with this issue and presents the results to the delegates. I always assume that

ESOP Global: Response to the new EU pharmaceutical legislation proposal (2023)

About the past and present of ISOPP and ESOP Global (October 2023)

Question: Some colleagues have received an invitation for a virtual meeting of different nations with leadership. Where does the ISOPP get our email addresses from and what is this all about?

Klaus: Since we as ESOP operate our homepage openly for all interested parties, i.e. we allow everyone to participate in our activities free of charge, and all delegates can be contacted directly via the mailing list. The fact that the ISOPP is now showing interest in national issues in the context of oncological therapy only makes it clear that it has not missed the fact that we as ESOP Global have now brought together 70 countries and their active members for a fruitful exchange.

Question: Is this a new ISOPP strategy?

Klaus: We don’t know the decisions of the committees, but we can see the effects. When we founded the ESOP in 2000 because we thought it would be fruitful for better patient care to pass on knowledge to anyone who was interested, this was rejected by the countries, the majority of which belonged to the former Commonwealth. Since that days we propagate the goal worldwide: “Unity in diversity”

Question: Why is it that the ISOPP now wants to be open?

Klaus: There are certainly several reasons. Firstly, the ISOPP has started to organise its congresses annually rather than every two years, which puts it in strong competition with us. Especially in the years in which we organise the ECOP. The money that the industry, for example, budgets annually for advertising, including stands at congresses and satellite symposia, is limited. In this respect, the ISOPP is looking for national associations to participate in their congresses as co-organisers. On the other hand, the ISOPP also seems to have realised that the time of elitist associations is over if we not only want to support the development and use of new medicines, but also want to make knowledge available to all colleagues worldwide to support the entire treatment process. Through the EUSOP specialisation programme and the regional lectures it contains, we are not only strengthening our colleagues locally, but also our society. This also includes the ongoing and continuous development of quality standards. By already working on the 7th version, involving all experts worldwide, we are demonstrating our sustainability-orientated policy.

Question: You were the first elected president of the ISOPP in 1998. How do you feel about this unfriendly behaviour now?

Klaus: I don’t want to hide the fact that on the one hand this behaviour of long-time colleagues, such as the new ISOPP Vice President, who also participated as a delegate in the ESOP for the BOPA before BREXIT, hurts me. However, I have not given up hope of achieving fruitful cooperation in the future in the interests of patients. For this reason, on behalf of the ESOP Executive Committee, I have sent a detailed letter to the presidents of the ISOPP in which we offer a hand to reach an understanding on an equal footing, but at the same time make it a prerequisite to end the competition for finances and the organisation of the annual congress in the same year as the ECOP.