The 2018 annual report of the European Medicines Agencypublished today provides an overview of the Agency’s activities to protect and promote the health of people and animals in the EU and highlights EMA’s most significant achievements in 2018. As in previous editions, an entire chapter is dedicated to figures and trends of the Agency’s main areas of work, including medicine evaluation and monitoring activities.
The report includes an interview with EMA’s Deputy Executive Director, Noël Wathion, who explains how the Agency is preparing for the UK’s withdrawal from the EU and how the preparations for Brexit will impact EMA’s work in the longer term. It also presents reflections from the former and newly-elected chairs of EMA’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP)">human medicines committee (CHMP), safety committee (PRAC) and orphan medicines committee (COMP) on recent achievements and future challenges for their respective committees.
Other important activities covered by the report include the publication of the Agency’s draft 'Draft EMA Regulatory Science to 2025 - Strategic reflection' strategy for a six-month public consultation and the Summary of the EMA public hearing on quinolone and fluoroquinolone antibiotics held in June 2018, where the PRAC invited patients to share their experience with quinolones and fluoroquinolones, a class of antibiotics widely prescribed in the EU.