ESMO joined an EMA virtual meeting marking 25 years of its strong commitment to protect public health with a focus on cancer. Lectures from ESMO’s spokespersons were streamed.
On 29 October, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) hosted a virtual meeting to mark 25 years of its strong commitment to protect public and animal health. On this occasion, lessons learnt from the past and priorities for the future were discussed with international partners from multiple health fields and ESMO joined the workshop as a key stakeholder in the field of oncology.
Since its establishment in 1995, EMA has proved to be a pioneer of regulatory practices. Over the years, around 10-15% of all approved medicines, and more specifically 30 % of the new innovative medicines (new active substances) are oncology medicines. As the oncology landscape is evolving rapidly, the EMA has proven to tackle difficult cases and evolve and adapt, when needed.
ESMO has started a fruitful collaboration with EMA in 2012, joining the Healthcare Professionals' Working Party (HCPWP), the platform for exchange of information and discussion of issues of common interest between the Agency and healthcare professionals.
Since then, many projects were run by the Society to address key challenges in cancer care such as the ESMO Magnitude of Clinical Benefit Scale (ESMO-MCBS), the ESMO Scale for Clinical Actionability of Molecular Targets (ESCAT) and advocating on shortages of inexpensive medicines.
During the virtual meeting, lectures from ESMO’s spokespersons: ESMO President Prof. Solange Peters, Prof. Paolo Casali and Prof. Elizabeth De Vries highlighted that understanding the clinical value of cancer medicines and ensuring access to quality care to all cancer patients will play a central role to take on challenges in the next future.
The event was broadcasted live on the EMA website, where is now available to watch on demand.