A joint committee of the UK Parliament is supporting the creation and use of hybrid, human-animal embryos for research provided they are destroyed within 14 days after fertilisation and they are not implanted in a womb, according to the committee’s chairman, Phil Willis, the Liberal Democrat MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough.
Over the past 19 months, some 272 small enterprises have approached the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) to ask for assistance in carrying out their development and registration programmes, according to new figures from the agency.
The European Commission is asking scientists, industrialists and members of the public to help it draft a code of conduct for nanotechnology.
The European Medicines Agency has called for the withdrawal from the European market of the neuroleptic, veralipride, following reports of severe side effects.
Five medicinal products, including a generic version of olanzapine, have been recommended for licensing in Europe by the main scientific committee of the European Medicines Agency (EMEA). At the same time, a proposed treatment for Crohn’s disease from Elan Pharma, was turned back.
From 7 July 2007, pharmaceutical companies holding European Community marketing authorisations could be fined at up to 5% of their Community turnover if they infringe their licensing obligations or give false information to the European Medicines Agency (EMEA).
The European Medicines Agency and the US Food and Drug Administration have agreed to exchange information from companies about their proposed studies of paediatric medicines in order to avoid unnecessary trials involving children.
The European Commission is to consider ten new medicinal products for orphan designation. The products are:
The European Commission has issued a call for proposals to carry out a series of projects under its Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) on health, including proposals specifically targeted at small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs), according to Ludovica Serafini of the Commission’s Directorate-General for Research.
Two orphan designated medicinal products have been recommended by the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) for licensing in Europe, according to an agency press release.