We are in the ‘age of the old’ and should be celebrating this incredible achievement by the human race but like many things, an ageing population brings with it a number of social challenges: the importance of the carers - and in turn their health - plus the longer we live the more diseases we acquire. A further challenge is the infertility of the European populations. The consequent burden to our health system means that there has to be a far closer understanding between patients and the pharmaceutical industry about the medicines that are produced, side effects, adverse effects and how necessary it is for these patient reported outcomes to be fed back to the industry. For too long, the industry and patients have been kept apart by clinicians and certainly, in more recent times, by the media. This is having a very adverse effect upon our health economy and should be rectified wherever possible. Partnership and constant dialogue between industry and patients using the well established Dr/Patient relationship is essential for the joint responsibility of managing health.