European Medicines Agency

European Medicines Agency

EMA headquarters in Amsterdam
Agency overview
Formed1 January 1995; 29 years ago (1995-01-01)
JurisdictionEuropean Union
HeadquartersAmsterdam, Netherlands[1]
MottoScience. Medicines. Health.
Employees897[2]
Annual budget€478.4 million (2024)[3]
Agency executives
  • Emer Cooke, Executive Director
  • Christa Wirthumer-Hoche, Chairperson
Key document
Websiteema.europa.eu
Map
European Medicines Agency is located in European Union
Amsterdam
Amsterdam
European Medicines Agency (European Union)

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) is an agency of the European Union (EU) in charge of the evaluation and supervision of pharmaceutical products. Prior to 2004, it was known as the European Agency for the Evaluation of Medicinal Products or European Medicines Evaluation Agency (EMEA).[4][5]

The EMA was set up in 1995, with funding from the European Union and the pharmaceutical industry, as well as indirect subsidy from member states, its stated intention to harmonise (but not replace) the work of existing national medicine regulatory bodies. The hope was that this plan would not only reduce the €350 million annual cost drug companies incurred by having to win separate approvals from each member state but also that it would eliminate the protectionist tendencies of sovereign states unwilling to approve new drugs that might compete with those already produced by domestic drug companies.

The EMA was founded after more than seven years of negotiations among EU governments and replaced the Committee for Proprietary Medicinal Products and the Committee for Veterinary Medicinal Products, though both of these were reborn as the core scientific advisory committees. The agency was located in London prior to the United Kingdom's vote for withdrawal from the European Union, relocating to Amsterdam in March 2019.[6][7]

  1. ^ "Relocation to Amsterdam". European Medicines Agency. 17 September 2018. Archived from the original on 15 October 2019. Retrieved 16 January 2021.
  2. ^ "European Medicines Agency (EMA) | European Union". europa.eu. 26 February 2020. Archived from the original on 8 April 2019. Retrieved 26 February 2020.
  3. ^ "Funding | European Medicines Agency (EMA)" (PDF). European Medicines Agency. 8 January 2024. Archived (PDF) from the original on 26 March 2024. Retrieved 26 March 2024.
  4. ^ Set up by EC Regulation No. 2309/93 as the European Agency for the Evaluation of Medicinal Products, and renamed by EC Regulation No. 726/2004 to the European Medicines Agency, it had the acronym EMEA until December 2009. The European Medicines Agency does not call itself EMA either – it has no official acronym but may reconsider if EMA becomes commonly accepted (see communication on new visual identity Archived 1 June 2010 at the Wayback Machine and logo Archived 25 December 2009 at the Wayback Machine).
  5. ^ "EMEA becomes EMA". PMLive. 14 December 2009. Archived from the original on 22 November 2022. Retrieved 6 October 2017.
  6. ^ Hrabovszki, Georgina (11 March 2019). "EMA now operating from Amsterdam". European Medicines Agency. Archived from the original on 16 October 2019. Retrieved 12 March 2019.
  7. ^ "United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union ('Brexit')". European Medicines Agency. 17 September 2018. Archived from the original on 15 September 2019. Retrieved 16 September 2019.