European Medicines Agency

On 6 May 2021, the European Commission published its “EU Strategy on COVID-19 Therapeutics” (the “Strategy”).  With the vaccination programme now under way, the EU is shifting focus towards the development, approval and procurement of COVID-19 therapeutic products.  The Commission intends to build on the experience from the EU vaccines strategy.  In particular, the aim is to have three new therapeutics available by October 2021 and possibly two further products by the end of the year.

The Strategy touches on a number of key areas for both biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies operating in the space:
Continue Reading European Commission outlines Strategy on COVID-19 Therapeutics

On March 12, 2020, the Italian Medicines Agency (“AIFA”) has provided guidance on the management of clinical trials due to the COVID-19 emergency.  The Guidance, which is addressed to CROs, Sponsors and non-profit organizations involved in clinical trials, allows for some derogations to support them face the criticalities.  The Guidance…
Continue Reading The Italian Medicines Agency publishes Guidance on the management of clinical trials in Italy during the COVID-19 emergency

This article was originally posted on our sister blog Inside Medical Devices

The EU Regulatory Committee on Medical Devices recently voted in favor of the European Commission’s draft decision on the classification of cranberry products (the “Cranberry Decision”).  In essence, the Cranberry Decision provides that cranberry products intended to prevent or treat cystitis and that have a principal intended action based on proanthocyanidins (“PACs”) do not fall within the definition of medical devices.  The European Commission adopted its draft decision based on Article 13(1)(d) of Directive 93/42/EEC (the “Medical Devices Directive”).

The vote comes more than one year after the Commission prepared a draft decision, in February 2016 (see our analysis of that draft decision here).  The formal adoption and publication of the Cranberry Decision are expected later this summer.  This article first briefly summarizes the regulatory context of EU borderline issues.  It then explains what triggered the decision, analyzes its content, and provides a brief outlook on what is coming next.
Continue Reading EU Vote on First Borderline Decision Confirms: Cranberry Products Are Not Medical Devices

Raj Gathani, a Trainee Solicitor in Covington’s London office, contributed to this post.

On 1 September 2015 the General Court issued an interim order in favour of Pari Pharma GmbH (“Pari”) to suspend the European Medicines Agency’s (“EMA”) decision to grant a third-party, Novartis Europharm Ltd (“Novartis”), access to certain documents prepared during the Marketing Authorisation (“MA”) application process (the “MA Documents”).  The MA Documents at issue included EMA Assessment Reports on similarity and superiority between Pari’s product (Vantobra) and Novartis’ product (TOBI Podhaler), which has an EU MA as an orphan medicine.  Novartis made the request to the EMA for access to the MA Documents under the Transparency Regulation 1049/2001.  The main case is currently pending before the General Court (Case T-235/15).

The thrust of Pari’s argument before the General Court was that the MA Documents contain Pari’s regulatory strategy for obtaining MA approval, disclosure of which might cause Pari serious and irreparable financial damage.  The President of the General Court acknowledged that the case raised complex issues in the area of confidentiality and stated that the main proceedings (rather than an interim hearing) is the appropriate forum to address such issues..  As such the President considered that the MA Documents fell under a presumption of confidentiality  and ordered the EMA not to disclose the MA Documents.
Continue Reading General Court Makes Interim Order to Protect Confidentiality in Pari Pharma Transparency Case

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has recently published for public consultation its draft guideline on clinical development of fixed combination medicinal products (Draft Guideline), which is intended to replace CHMP/EWP/240/95 Rev. 1 (Existing Guideline).  The Draft Guideline applies to fixed combination medicinal products containing two or more active substances within a single pharmaceutical form.  The active substances may be known active substances or substances that have yet to be authorised in the EU.
Continue Reading New Draft EMA-Guideline On Clinical Development Of Fixed Combination Medicines

On 21 January 2015, the European Medicines Agency (“EMA”) launched a public consultation on how the transparency rules of Regulation EU No 536/2014 (the “Clinical Trials Regulation”) should apply to the new clinical trials database.  The consultation document of the EMA discusses the practical application of the new transparency rules, sets different options on the application of the exceptions to the disclosure of information, and invites stakeholders to comment.
Continue Reading EMA Transparency Policy – EMA Launches Public Consultation On The Publication Of Information Under The New EU Clinical Trials Regulation

On 19 March 2014, the EMA announced the launch of its adaptive licensing pilot project along with an invitation to interested companies to submit their ongoing medicine development programmes to be considered as pilot cases.

The term “adaptive licensing” (also known as “staggered approval” or “progressive licensing”) describes a process which allows patients to have early access to new medicinal products by starting with an early authorisation of a product for a specific, restricted patient subset and gradually adapting the marketing authorisation to include broader patient populations as additional clinical evidence is gathered.

The adaptive licensing approach is expected to ensure timely access for patients to new medicines, especially those addressing serious conditions with unmet medical needs, while at the same time safeguarding the principle of risk-benefit assessment.
Continue Reading EMA launches adaptive licensing pilot project

This post originally appeared on our sister blog, InsideMedicalDevices.  

As announced in our previous post, the rapporteur (i.e., the leader of the parliamentary process) for the new Regulation on medical devices, Mrs. Dagmar ROTH-BEHRENDT, has proposed the introduction of a pharma-like pre-marketing authorization regime for high risk medical devices in the EU.

In her recent report submitted to the ENVI Committee of the European Parliament (the parliamentary committee in charge of environmental and public health issues), Mrs. Dagmar ROTH-BEHRENDT criticizes the conformity assessment procedure involving notified bodies for high risk devices and proposes the creation of two types of marketing authorization procedures for those devices.  The authorization process would either be centralized (i.e., at EU level) for innovative devices, or decentralized (i.e., at national level) for other devices.  However, manufacturers required to use the decentralized procedure would have the possibility to apply for the centralized procedure.
Continue Reading Lead Member of the European Parliament Proposes a Pre-Marketing Authorization System