EMA Scales Back its Roadmap Vision to Match Resource Reality

EMA is scaling back the number of projects it will be working on outside of its core business as economic realities and flat staffing levels impact its ability to pursue some longer-term objectives.

In its “Roadmap to 2015,” released by the agency in January, EMA outlined a comprehensive set of projects aimed at: ● addressing public health needs ● facilitating access to medicines, and ● promoting the safe use of medicines.  In October, it approved the implementation plan, “From Vision to Reality.”

Addressing the RAPS annual meeting in Indianapolis in late October, EMA Regulatory, Procedural and Committee Support Head Anthony Humphries explained that events that have occurred since the roadmap and implementation documents were written have caused the agency to do a “reality check.”

EMA, Humphries explained, is in a “phase of zero growth” due to economic pressures across the EU, and does not have sufficient resources to accomplish all of its roadmap goals.

“It does not mean to say they were bad aspirations,” he commented. “But at the end of the day, the reality check says that there have to be limits in terms of what we can realistically deliver.”

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