Latvian delegate participates in the Heads of Medicines Agencies meeting

17.02.2016.

On 17th and 18th February 2016 Svens Henkuzens, the Director of the State Agency of Medicines (SAM), is attending the scheduled Heads of Medicines Agencies (HMA) meeting in Amsterdam which is being organised by the Medicines Evaluation Board of the Netherlands as part of the Netherlands Presidency of the Council of the European Union (EU).

The meeting agenda contains several important issues related to the pharmaceutical field, including:

Priorities of the Netherlands Presidency of the EU Council in the field of collaboration of pharmaceutical regulators – more rapid availability of new medicinal products (innovation) to patients; fighting the antimicrobial resistance, interruptions in the supply of medicines in Europe and solutions for prevention of such interruptions;
Approval of the long-term work plans for HMA and EMA in accordance with the 2016 2020 operational strategy of both organisations.

SAM Director Svens Henkuzens: "The system for normative regulation of medicines in Europe is unique. It consists of the network of national medicines agencies in the member states, the European Commission and European Medicines Agency all working in a unified system. It serves more than 500 million people in Europe and ensures that patients in Europe have access to complete and truthful information regarding medicines and that medicines are safe, effective and qualitative."

The objective of the meeting is to ensure effective collaboration of the medicines agencies in European countries with the European Medicines Agency and the European Commission regarding public health policy issues related to medicines and introduction of harmonised legal acts.