EFA

The European Medicines Agency has adopted a revised policy on the handling of conflicts of interests of Scientific Committee members and experts. Depending on the level of conflict of interest, restricted involvement in the Agency’s activities may be applied. The new policy will be further discussed at the meeting of the EMA Patient and Consumer Working Party (PCWP). We would like to draw you attention to the fact that public consultation on the Draft guideline on clinical investigation of medicinal products in the treatment of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) has been announced. EFA is collecting comments from members and allies to draft a joint submission from patients’ perspective. EFA members are welcomed to send their comments to the EFA office by the 15th of January 2011. On the 29th of November, two new EFA experts in reviewing EMA documents for the public (vice-president Christine Roland and board member Per-Ake Wecksell) will take part in an EMA training session on the review of medicinal product information. On the 30th of November board members Lina Buzermaniene and Per-Ake Wecksell will take part in the EMA PCWP meeting with all other organizations eligible for co-operation. On the 15th of December Lina Buzermaniene, EFA board member, is attending a conference entitled "Regulatory Science: Are regulators leaders or followers?" held at the European Medicines Agency offices to mark the departure of Thomas Lönngren as Executive Director of the European Medicines Agency at the end of 2010. As the recruitment procedure for the new director will not be completed by the time ofhis departure, the Agency has appointed Andreas Pott, the current Head of Administration, to serve as Acting Executive Director from 1 January 2011. During Lönngren’s period EMA has become one of the best examples of genuine patient involvement and EFA hopes that EMA will remain at the forefront of this in the future. More information on EMA, patient involvement and resources for patients