EMA revises policy on conflict of interests

The European Medicines Agency has today published its revised policy on handling declarations of interests for scientific-committee members and experts.

The revisions reflect a more balanced approach to handling conflicts of interests that aims to effectively restrict the involvement of experts with possible conflicts of interests in the Agency’s work while maintaining EMA’s ability to access the best available expertise, the EMA stated.

The revised policy, which was endorsed by the management board in March 2014, takes into account input from stakeholders at the Agency’s September 2013 public workshop “Best expertise vs conflicts of interests: striking the right balance.”