EU lags USA on new drug availability

Although review times for new drugs in the European Union have met mandated performance goals, many medicines are available in the USA ahead of the EU, according to a report recently completed by the Boston, USA-based Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development at Tufts University.

The study found that mean approval times for new pharmaceutical products approved in both the EU and the USA during 2000-05 were nearly identical, taking 15.8 months, on average, for drugs cleared by the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) and 15.7 months for those by the US Food and Drug Administration.

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