Europe’s opportunity to open up drug regulation

Questions about the benefits of the flu drug oseltamivir in otherwise healthy people1 2 have fuelled debate about the secrecy surrounding the documentation submitted for marketing authorisation of new medicines. Greater transparency would open drug dossiers to evaluation by the scientific community and help independent interested parties define the benefit-risk profile of new medicines before they are allowed on to the market. The recent movement of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) to the Health and Consumer Policy Directorate (DG Sanco) rather than the Enterprise and Industry Directorate presents an opportunity to introduce more openness.

The secrecy surrounding the dossiers presented by drug companies to obtain approval of new drugs has received little attention in Europe. Writing about the oseltamivir issue, Fiona Godlee states that “it is a legitimate scientific concern that data used to support important health policy strategies are held only by a commercial organisation and have not been subject to full external scrutiny and review.”1 This is important because a new drug authorised by the EMA can be marketed in all the European member states without further evaluation.