Meeting highlights from the Pharmacovigilance Risk Assessment Committee (PRAC) 11-14 June 2019
PRAC starts review of leuprorelin medicines
EMA’s safety committee (PRAC) has started a review of leuprorelin medicines after reports indicated that handling errors during preparation and administration can cause some patients to receive insufficient amounts of their medicine, thus reducing the benefits of treatment.
The PRAC will now evaluate all available data and determine whether measures are needed to ensure that the medicines are prepared and administered appropriately.
While the review is ongoing, healthcare professionals should carefully follow the handling instructions for leuprorelin medicines. Patients prescribed these medicines who have any concerns should discuss them with their doctor.
More information is available below.
The PRAC’s broad range of responsibilities cover all aspects of the risk management of medicines throughout their lifecycle and include assessment of signals, periodic safety update reports, risk management plans, post-authorisation safety studies and referrals. These terms are explained below:
- Safety signal assessments. A safety signal is information on a new or known adverse event that is potentially caused by a medicine and that warrants further investigation. Signals are generated from several sources such as spontaneous reports, clinical studies and the scientific literature. More information can be found under ' Signal management'.
- Periodic safety update reports, abbreviated as PSURs, are reports prepared by marketing authorisation holders to describe the worldwide safety experience with a medicine in a defined period after its authorisation. PSURs for medicinal products that contain the same active substance or the same combination of active substances, but have different marketing authorisations and are authorised in different EU Member States, are jointly assessed in a single assessment procedure. More information can be found under ' Periodic safety update reports (PSURs)'.
- Risk management plans, abbreviated as RMPs, are detailed descriptions of the activities and interventions designed to identify, characterise, prevent or minimise risks relating to medicines. Companies are required to submit an RMP to EMA when applying for a marketing authorisation. RMPs are continually updated throughout the lifetime of the medicine as new information becomes available. More information is available under ' Risk management plans'.
- Post-authorisation safety studies, abbreviated as PASSs, are studies carried out after a medicine has been authorised to obtain further information on its safety, or to measure the effectiveness of risk-management measures. The PRAC assesses both the protocols (aspects related to the design and conduct of a study) and the results of PASSs. More information can be found under ' '.
- Referrals are procedures used to resolve issues such as concerns over the safety or benefit-risk balance of a medicine or a class of medicines. In a referral related to safety of medicines, the PRAC is requested by a Member State or the European Commission to conduct a scientific assessment of a particular medicine or class of medicines on behalf of the EU. More information can be found under Referral procedures: human medicines.
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Leuprorelin-containing depot medicines Article-31 referral - Notification (PDF/61.25 KB)
First published: 14/06/2019 -
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Leuprorelin-containing depot medicines Article-31 referral - Timetable for the procedure (PDF/111.61 KB)
First published: 14/06/2019
Last updated: 16/03/2020
EMA/PRAC/317693/2019 Rev 2 -
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Leuprorelin-containing depot medicines Article-31 referral - List of questions (PDF/88.45 KB)
First published: 14/06/2019
EMA/PRAC/317692/2019 -
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Leuprorelin-containing depot medicines Article-31 referral - Annex I (PDF/138.14 KB)
First published: 14/06/2019
Last updated: 31/07/2020 -
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Leuprorelin-containing depot medicines Article-31 referral - Review of handling errors with depot formulations of leuprorelin medicines started (PDF/76.81 KB)
First published: 14/06/2019
EMA/316598/2019
Procedure |
Status |
Update |
---|---|---|
Article-31 procedure: Estradiol-containing (0.01% w/w) medicinal products for topical use |
Under evaluation |
PRAC continued its assessment |
Article-31 procedure: Fluorouracil and fluorouracil related substances (capecitabine, tegafur and flucytosine) containing medicinal products |
Under evaluation |
PRAC continued its assessment |
Article-20 procedure: Lemtrada |
Under evaluation |
PRAC continued its assessment |
Article-31 procedure: Methotrexate containing medicinal products |
Under evaluation |
PRAC continued its assessment |
Article-20 procedure: Xeljanz | Under evaluation | PRAC continued its assessment |