Photo of Yuliya Gevrenova

Yuliya Gevrenova

Yuliya Gevrenova is an associate in the Life Sciences Practice Group. She advises clients across a wide range of regulatory, compliance and procedural issues, focusing on EU and Public International law.

Yuliya assists multinational companies in the food, feed, pharmaceutical and cosmetics sectors to navigate complicated legal frameworks, including:

International Health law, including the impact of the WHO Pandemic treaty, the application of the International Health Regulations and the Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Framework.
International Environmental law, including issues of access and benefit sharing under the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Nagoya protocol.
Food law, including labelling and claims; coordination with national authorities during withdrawals and recalls; special rules on flavorings and enzymes, as well as GMOs and NGTs.
Chemicals (REACH, plastics, pollutants, etc.) and Environmental regulations (CSDDD, Wastewater Directive, green washing, etc.).
Animal health issues, including animal testing, transportation and feed.

As part of her pro bono practice, Yuliya advises on complex litigation strategies aimed at defending the rights of people with mental disabilities.

Contact:Read more about Yuliya GevrenovaEmail

“Delays in clinical trials result in delays of potentially life-saving treatments”

The European Commission is streamlining the rules for clinical trials of medicines consisting of, or containing genetically modified organisms (“GMOs”).  Under the current EU GMO framework, getting authorization for clinical trials of GMO medicines is a long and costly process.  Industry groups have vocally criticized it; and the Commission itself has voiced the need for change.  

The Commission proposes a single, centralized application for clinical trials of GMO medicines.  The sponsor will include a detailed environmental risk assessment with the application.  In turn, the Commission will exempt clinical trials from the scope of many GMO rules.  The new system will be leaner, greener and will get potentially life-saving treatments to patients with less administrative delay.

The changes are part of the EU’s new package of revisions to the bloc’s common pharmaceutical regime, set out in a draft Regulation and a draft Directive, published by the Commission on 26 April 2023.  The new GMO medicines rules are just one part of a range of environment‑focused reforms to EU pharmaceutical law set out in the proposals — for more information, see our post here.

Continue Reading EU Pharma Legislation Review Series:  GMO Medicines

The European Commission has proposed specific measures to increase the supervision and monitoring of the use of antimicrobial medicinal products (or “antimicrobials”), with the aim to counter the spread of antimicrobial resistance (“AMR”).  At the same time, the measures are also aimed at promoting and incentivizing the development of new…

Continue Reading EU Pharma Legislation Review Series: AMR and Transferable Exclusivity Vouchers

Pharmaceutical companies take note: the EU plans to refuse marketing authorizations for environmentally-unfriendly medicines.  

The EU has published a package of revisions to the bloc’s common pharmaceutical regime.  Many revisions aim to reduce the environmental impact of human medicinal products.  The key environmental measures include:

  • Pre-authorization — Environment-related refusals:  The European authorities will be able to refuse a marketing authorization application where the accompanying Environmental Risk Assessment (“ERA”) is not adequate, or if the environmental risks have not been sufficiently addressed.  
  • Post-authorization — Environment-related monitoring and conditions of use:  The European authorities will be able to impose environment‑related conditions of use on authorized medicines, including limiting the product to prescription-only or requiring additional post-authorization ERAs.  They will also be able to suspend, revoke or vary marketing authorizations where a medicine presents a serious risk to the environment.
  • Awareness and knowledge building — Warnings and environmental risk databases:  Companies will be required to include additional information on environmental impact in a medicine’s EPAR, and additional awareness‑raising information in the product packaging of antimicrobials. 

In this post, we lay out what pharmaceutical companies need to know about the key environmental measures.

Continue Reading EU Pharma Legislation Review Series: Addressing Environmental Risks