On 23 October 2025, Advocate General (“AG”) Emiliou delivered his opinion in Case C-118/24: Laboratoires Eurogenerics and Theramex France.[1]
The AG opines on three key questions regarding the use of the decentralised procedure for generic medicinal products:
(i) The national courts of the EU Member States are allowed by EU law to judicially review
Welcome to the latest installment of Arnold & Porter’s Virtual and Digital Health Digest. This digest covers key virtual and digital health regulatory and public policy developments during September and early October 2025 from the the United Kingdom, and European Union.
This month, the EU and UK have been actively processing the future of AI development and regulation in life sciences and health care through a combination of legislative initiatives, opportunities for stakeholder engagement, and investment in infrastructure. In the EU, the European Commission has published draft guidance on reporting serious AI incidents under the AI Act, and the European Medicines Agency has initiated a stakeholder survey to define AI priorities in medicines regulation. In the UK, the UK government has announced a National Commission on the Regulation of AI in Healthcare and a new AIR-SP cloud platform. These developments signal a shift from theoretical regulation to practical implementation. There have also been two important decisions from the Court of Justice of the European Union refining the legal boundaries of digital health services and data protection.Continue Reading Virtual and Digital Health Digest – October 2025
The European Commission has published new Guidelines on the details of the various categories of variations (to the terms of marketing authorisations (“MA”) for medicinal products) (“Variations Guidelines”).
The new 2025 Variations Guidelines replace the older 2013 Variation Guidelines, and support the implementation of the amended Regulation (EC) No 1234/2008 (“Variations Regulation”) (see our BioSlice blog post), which entered into force in January 2025. The Variations Guidelines provide detailed guidance for marketing authorisation holders (“MAH”) on modifying and updating their MAs, the procedures to follow and the related requirements.
Overall, the new Guidelines provide greater flexibility and clarity in certain aspects of the variation procedures. At the same time, they introduce new obligations for MAHs that should be taken into account by pharmaceutical companies going forward.
In this blog, we highlight some of the key changes introduced by the Variations Guidelines.Continue Reading European Commission Publishes New Variation Guidelines for Medicines
On 4 September 2025, the Court of Justice of the European Union (“CJEU”) delivered a notable judgment on what is considered pseudonymised personal data under EU data protection law. While, technically speaking, the judgment concerns the interpretation of Regulation (EU) 2018/1725 (which governs the processing of personal data by the EU institutions and bodies), it fully applies to the interpretation of the concepts of personal data and pseudonymised data under Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (“GDPR”).
This question is essential for many companies operating in the EU, and in particular Life Sciences companies handling key-coded or otherwise pseudonymised patients’ personal data in the context of research and development, supply of healthcare products and related safety monitoring.Continue Reading CJEU clarifies the concept of pseudonymised data
On July 18, 2025, the European Commission released its guidelines on the obligations for providers of general-purpose AI (GPAI) models under the European Union’s AI Act. This is an important development for companies, including in the Life Sciences sector, building their own GPAI models, as well as using, integrating and/or further developing third-party GPAI as
On 2 July, 2025, the European Commission published its EU Life Sciences Strategy (the ‘Strategy’), setting out a roadmap to position the European Union (EU) as a global leader in life sciences by 2030.
For pharmaceutical, MedTech, and biotech companies, the Strategy may, at least in theory, represent a positive shift towards a more innovation-driven environment for research and development (R&D) and market access in life sciences. This will, however, depend, to a great extent, on the practical impact and implementation of the other policy and legislative initiatives in the EU (e.g., the reform of the EU pharmaceutical legislation (see our latest blog), Biotech Act, Critical Medicines Act (see our blog)).
The Strategy presents concrete EU level actions to address long-standing challenges in life sciences in the EU, such as regulatory fragmentation across EU Member States, as well as the barriers to multi-country clinical trials and to the market access of advanced therapies and novel technologies.
A new Life Science Coordination Group within the European Commission will oversee the implementation of the Strategy and ensure that EU policies are consistent and supportive of innovation.
This blog highlights key elements of the Strategy of relevance to pharmaceutical, MedTech, and biotech companies.Continue Reading The European Commission Publishes an EU Life Sciences Strategy
On 22 July 2025, the European Commission adopted Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/1466 (“Regulation”), updating the EU pharmacovigilance (or “PV”) rules by way of amendments to Implementing Regulation (EU) No 520/2012. The changes aim to clarify and strengthen certain pharmacovigilance obligations (some of which arguably reflect what is already the current practice and expectations of the EU PV inspectors).
The Regulation introduces a number of new compliance expectations and requirements for applicants and marketing authorisation holders (“MAHs”), some of which will start to apply before mid-August.Continue Reading Updates to the EU Pharmacovigilance Rules: Key Takeaways for Marketing Authorisation Holders
On 7 July 2025, the European Commission launched a public consultation that could mark the start of a turning point for how Artificial Intelligence (AI) is used in pharmaceutical manufacturing. The consultation proposes significant updates to the EU Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) guidelines—specifically Chapter 4 on Documentation, Annex 11 on Computerised Systems, and, for the first time, a new Annex 22 dedicated to AI.Continue Reading EU Consults on New GMP Rules for AI in Pharma Manufacturing
On 4 June, EU Member States, meeting in the Council of the European Union (‘Council’), have agreed on a position on the pharmaceutical reform package.
This agreement was reached despite significant divergences between EU Member States in the preceding weeks. It marks a key milestone in the process for adoption of the EU revision of EU’s general pharmaceutical legislation, as it sets out the Council’s position for the trilogue negotiations to find a text agreeable to the Parliament and the Council, which can now begin.
The innovative pharmaceutical industry will welcome aspects of the Council’s adopted negotiating mandate as it provides greater certainty with regards to regulatory data protection and it lightens some of the obligations introduced in the European Commission proposal for reform of the EU pharmaceutical legislation adopted in April 2023 and the European Parliament’s position adopted on 10 April 2024 (see our detailed advisory). At the same time, the Council has adopted positions on some aspects of the proposals that could be seen as less favourable to industry.
We discuss some of the key provisions and changes in the Council’s adopted position below. This is, however, not covering all elements of the reform of the EU pharmaceutical legislation and the final outcome of the legislative process remains uncertain.Continue Reading Council of the European Union backs reforms to the EU Regulatory Framework for Medicinal Products
On 21 May 2025, the European Commission published its Proposal for a Regulation (“Proposal”), amending several existing regulations, including the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/67 (“GDPR”), to simplify obligations for small and medium-sized enterprises (“SMEs”) and extend certain mitigating measures to small mid-cap enterprises (“SMCs”).Continue Reading Proposed GDPR Simplifications for SMEs and SMCs