BRIEF—EMA highlights 2020 drug approvals

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has published an overview of its key recommendations in 2020 on the authorization and safety monitoring of medicines for human use.

In 2020, the EMA recommended 97 medicines for marketing authorization. Of these, 39 had a new active substance which had never been authorized in the European Union before.

This compares with a total of 53 novel drugs approved by the US Food and Drug Administration last year, which was the second highest number in more than 20 years.

The Agency recommended one vaccine and one treatment for COVID-19, and adopted a positive opinion for a medicine for use in countries outside the EU.

The infographic includes figures on the authorization of medicines and a selection of new treatments that represent significant progress in their therapeutic areas.