Pharmaceutical companies should not reject disease management initiatives for Europe on the basis that it does not generate an increase in profits, advises Dr Tony Felton, a general practitioner and management consultant for Coopers & Lybrand, UK. He suggests that in today's increasingly difficult managed-care environment, disease management programmes may be the saviour that drug companies are looking for in terms of maintaining access to important market channels. At PharmEcon ′97 [Paris, France; June 1997], Dr Felton discussed the commercial viability of disease management programmes in Europe, and highlighted the risks associated with not implementing such programmes.