On 4 May 2020, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) issued a guidance to support development and regulatory approval for treatments and vaccines for COVID-19 with the involvement of the dedicated EMA Pandemic Task Force (COVID-ETF). It sets out the available regulatory pathways to fast-track assessment of both new or repurposed methods of treating or preventing COVID-19.

Background

This guidance is part of EMA’s efforts to support the development and availability of medicinal products for COVID-19 to address this public health emergency. See also EMA’s guidance on clinical management trials (which we have summarised in a prior Advisory)

This latest guidance is based on the existing and established regulatory procedures to accelerate regulatory review and approval with appropriate adaptations  in direct response to COVID-19 pandemic.
Continue Reading EMA Guidance on fast-tracking the development and approval of treatments and vaccines for COVID-19

On 7 April 2020, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) issued a Notice to sponsors on validation and qualification of computerised systems used in clinical trials (Notice). This Notice was developed by the EMA’s GCP Inspectors Working Group (IWG) and the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) to highlight for clinical trial sponsors the legal and regulatory requirements which apply to software tools used in the conduct of clinical trials.

In addition, the EMA updated the Answers to Questions 8 and 9 of the Agency’s Q&A on Good Clinical Practice (GCP) (GCP Q&A) in line with the Notice.Continue Reading EMA’s Notice on validation and qualification of software tools used in clinical trials

The principle of Replacement, Reduction and Refinement of animal testing in the development of medicines (known as the 3Rs) refers to the replacement of animal studies with non-animal methods, the reduction of animal studies, and the refinement of any necessary tests through minimisation of stress of study animals (as illustrated in the graphic below). Under European law, all EU Member States must ensure that the 3Rs are systematically considered whenever animals are used for scientific purposes, including research, regulatory testing and production, education and training (see Directive 2010/63/EC on the protection of animals used for scientific purposes). On 26 February 2018, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) issued a Report summarising its activities during 2016 and 2017 in relation to the 3Rs in the regulatory testing of medicinal products.
Continue Reading EMA issues report on animals used in testing of medicines