EMA tightens conflicts-of-interests policies with immediate effect

The European Medicines Agency yesterday published its updated policy on conflicts of interests of the scientific experts and committee members it uses in its work. The policy was endorsed by the EMA Management Board on March 22, 2012.

The updated policy gives clearer guidance on the involvement of experts in academic trials and publicly-funded research. It aligns restrictions for the different roles in the scientific decision-making process and tightens the rules on grants from the pharmaceutical industry. The policy replaces the previous rules, which had been in effect since September 2011, and updates further an EMA announcement on conflict-of-interest policies last month (The Pharma Letter March 26). The full 9-page document is available on the Agency’s web site: www/ema.europa.eu.