European regulator seeks public input on medicines for older people

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) is inviting comments from the public on a reflection paper on how medicine developers can better address the needs of older people who need to take medicines.

In general, older people are the highest users of medicines. According to Eurostat, they are expected to make up almost a third of all Europeans by 2050, and they take more medicines than the rest of the population. Yet, medicines are rarely developed or packaged to take into account their specific needs. For example, some older people can face challenges such as difficulty opening boxes or bottles, reading instructions, swallowing or breaking tablets and capsules, which can result in medicines not being taken as intended, medication errors and ultimately a reduced quality of life.

The reflection paper describes aspects that medicines developers may consider when designing medicines for older people, such as selecting appropriate routes of administration and dosage forms, dosing frequency, excipients, container closure systems, devices and technologies, and user instructions in the product information.