Tag Archives: Peter O'Donnell

Lessons for World CTs from European Medical Device Failings

At first sight, the deficiencies of European controls on breast implants might seem to have little to offer in the way of guidance for effective clinical trials on medicines. But once again, European regulators are under the harsh glare of scrutiny, and—once again, as in the recent Mediator case, when questions were raised over patient injury [...]
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New Patient Group Gets Muted Response—So Far

It’s probably fair to say that the European Patients’ Academy on Therapeutic Innovation (EUPATI) has made a rather slow start since its launch on February 1. There doesn’t seem to have been a huge blaze of publicity or a massive wave enthusiasm for the new group, which has so far amassed a mere 13 followers [...]
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EU Questions Electromagnetic Radiation Limits

It is fashionable in many healthcare circles to denigrate the European Union for adopting a high-handed and inflexible approach to many of the complex issues that health policy is fated to cover. It is still more fashionable—indeed almost mandatory—to castigate the European Parliament, the EU’s self-styled representative of the people, for adopting an unrealistically cautious [...]
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Happier New Year? Busier, Anyway

For those who—understandably—have better things to do with their time than study the inner workings of regulatory authorities, it may perhaps be helpful as another year opens to see at least a snapshot of what two of the principal authorities in the world consider as important upcoming business.
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Patients Lose Patience

One of Europe’s most energetic patient organizations, Eurordis, is leaving no-one in doubt about how tolerant it is of the continuing discussions on revising the clinical trials directive. Not very tolerant at all. Its European Public Affairs Officer, Flaminia Macchia, offered a spirited view of these lengthy debates at a recent meeting in the European Parliament.
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What to Do With So Much Money?

It is, on the face of it, paradoxical that as Europe suffers its worst economic and financial crisis for generations, almost every week brings announcements of further public money available for research–and particularly for health research. Early in November, European Health Commissioner John Dalli unveiled proposals for a seven-year health program for the European Union, explicitly [...]
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Europe’s CT-Drain Gathers Pace

It is not just at the level of macro-economics that the European Union is having a hard time these days. New evidence continues to emerge of a decline in the relative strength of Europe as a pharmaceutical power, too. The Belgian pharmaceutical industry has just emitted a wail of anguish at the fall-off in clinical [...]
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A Manifesto from Rasi

Papam habemus. After nearly a year’s delay, the European Medicines Agency at last has an executive director. Guido Rasi has been installed, and Europe—and the world—waits to see what he is going to do. But it is already possible to make more than an inspired guess. He set out his ambitions in a little-studied document earlier [...]
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Advertising Industry’s European Woes

October will see the relaunch of a longstanding European battle—over what sort of information patients should get about prescription medicines. Like many European battles, this one has a long history, pitting companies’ championing of their products against campaigners fears of unbridled direct-to-consumer advertising. The explosive cocktail of debate has been made all the more volatile [...]
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Spin-offs from Spin-offs

The Protean capacity of the pharmaceutical industrial and academic complex to adapt and reinvent itself is one of the defining characteristics of the last 20 years. From mergers to spin-offs, from acquisitions to new partnerships, the constantly shifting kaleidoscope of pharma intelligence is a monument to unfailing initiative and energy. Alongside industry and academia, a whole [...]
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