Annual report 2011 shows continuously high level of activities
NewsCorporate
The European Medicines Agency has today published its Annual report of the European Medicines Agency 2011.
The report shows continuously high levels of activities in almost all of the Agency's business areas. There was a slight increase in the number of applications for initial marketing authorisations for medicines for human use, from 91 applications in 2010 to 100 applications in 2011. Most of this increase was due to applications received for new medicines: this number rose by over 40% from 34 in 2010 to 48 in 2011.
The number of applications received for initial marketing authorisation for veterinary medicines declined slightly, which is likely to reflect the delayed impact of global recession and the consolidation seen in recent years in the veterinary sector.
Significant advances were made in terms of transparency. In March 2011, the European Union Clinical Trials Register went live. The launch of this database was welcomed by patients', consumers' and healthcare professionals' organisations as an important step towards increasing transparency of medical research and facilitating availability of information about clinical trials taking place.
Later in the year, the Agency launched a new database of European experts, which allows the public to access an expert's declaration of interests online.
However, nowhere was the impact of the Agency's much more proactive approach to transparency more dramatic as in relation to handling of access-to-documents requests. During the course of the first full year of operation of the new access to documents policy, the Agency released more than a million pages in response to requests.