Meeting of the Heads of Medicines Agencies of Europe in Riga

The Meeting of the Heads of Medicines Agencies (HMA) of Europe will be held from 3rd to 5th of February, 2015 in Riga at the National Library of Latvia also called the Castle of Light (“Gaismas pils  in Latvian) within the Latvian Presidency of the Council of the EU.

More than 80 representatives from EU and EEA countries, as well as from the European Commission and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) will participate in this meeting. The agenda of the meeting includes the strategic issues as:

news in the pharmacovigilance (medicines safety monitoring) legislation in Europe;

provision of availability of medicines in Europe;

discussion of the new regulation project of veterinary medicines;

formation of the unified HMA and EMA strategy.

Director of the State Agency of Medicines of Latvia Inguna Adoviāa: “The European regulatory system for medicines is a unique model in the global regulatory environment. The system is based on a network of national medicines regulatory authorities for both human and veterinary medicines from Member States in the European Economic Area, the European Commission and the EMA all working closely together in an integrated fashion. The network serves a population of over 500 million. This closely integrated network ensures that patients and animals in Europe have access to adequate and reliable information about medicines and safe, effective and good quality medicines. 

The objective of the meeting is to ensure European Medicines Agencies’ effective cooperation with the EMA and the European Commission with regard to issues of public health policy relating to medicines and harmonised introduction of legislation. The meeting in Riga will be the 79th meeting of the Heads of Medicines Agencies of Europe.