European Medicines Agency (EMA) News Channel
The European Medicines Agency is recommending that marketing-authorisation applicants and holders use electronic application formsExternal link icon, following the successful completion of the pilot phase. The electronic application forms allow pharmaceutical companies to apply for initial marketing authorisations, variations or renewals for human and veterinary medicines using interactive PDF forms. Their benefits include: The European Medicines Agency has launched a public consultation on the changes to the product information stemming from the new pharmacovigilance legislation. The legislation requires the addition of information to the summary of product characteristics, which is targeted at healthcare professionals, and to the package leaflet, which is targeted at patients and consumers. This information includes: The European Medicines Agency reminds pharmaceutical companies that electronic application formsExternal link icon are available for use. Applicants can use the online forms for all applications for human and veterinary medicines in the centralised procedure. The electronic forms offer a convenient alternative to the paper versions and include the same content with structured data fields implementing controlled terminology lists and catalogues. Better protection of public health through strengthened EU system for medicines safetyThe European Medicines Agency has updated its guidance for pharmaceutical companies developing medicines for the treatment or prevention of diabetes. The guideline on clinical investigation of medicinal products in the treatment or prevention of diabetes mellitus, published today, updates the previous document from 2002. It gives guidance on the clinical studies required to support the authorisation of new medicines for treating or preventing diabetes. The European Medicines Agency has released a revised guideline for public consultation describing how pharmaceutical companies should address the quality aspects of biosimilar medicines. The guideline updates the previous guidance from 2006, and explains the requirements for the manufacture and comparability testing for biological medicines claiming to be similar to another medicine already on the market. The European Medicines Agency has begun publishing suspected side effect reports for medicines authorised in the European Economic Area (EEA) on a new public website. The reports come directly from the European Union (EU) medicines safety database EudraVigilance, and are one of the many types of data used by regulators to monitor the benefits and risks of a medicine once authorised. The launch of the new website is part of the Agency's continuing efforts to ensure EU regulatory processes are transparent and open and is a key step in the implementation of the EudraVigilance access policy.