During the 2020-23 COVID-19 public health emergency, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) provided guidance for medicine developers and pharmaceutical companies to help speed up development and approval for COVID-19 medicines and address regulatory challenges arising from the pandemic.

European Union (EU) pharmaceutical legislation known as the Clinical Trials Regulation entered into application on 31 January 2022. It aims to ensure the EU offers an attractive and favourable environment for carrying out clinical research on a large scale, with high standards of public transparency and safety for clinical trial participants.