50 years of EU pharma legislation

The European Commission will mark the 50th anniversary of the adoption of the first EU pharmaceutical law with a one-day conference in Brussels on 28 September. It will review past achievements and address future challenges.

The conference aims to bring together the different perspectives of national governments, European institutions, national competent authorities, industry, healthcare professionals, academia and patient groups, with the objective of working towards a shared vision for the future for the role of EU pharmaceutical legislation in protecting the health of citizens in the EU and in the world, and in promoting advances in science, innovation and public health. It will address risk regulation, the relationship between regulators and industry and the role of scientific communication, looking ahead to the challenges for the sector.

However, progress for homeopathic and anthroposophic medicinal products has to be achieved. In its report on Availability of Homeopathic and Anthroposophic Medicinal Products, ECHAMP has shown that in over twenty years, the implementation and enforcement of European medicines legislation for this sector is far from complete. The lack of harmonisation and disproportionate regulatory requirements in the EU are a threat to availability of these medicinal products in existing and new markets and a barrier to their free movement. There is a need for better regulation in this sector.

ECHAMP is keen to use this opportunity to raise some of the issues affecting our sector; we are also marking this important milestone by the publication of a specialist timeline, showing 50 years of regulation for homeopathic and anthroposophic medicinal products in the EU. It tracks the slow progress for this sector since the adoption of the first European medicines legislation for this sector in 1992.

The conference proceedings will be streamed to the web for those who cannot attend.