EMA Opens in Amsterdam
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has started operating from new premises in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, as of Mar. 11, after leaving its previous base in London in preparation for Brexit.
The agency said staff will spend a transitional week moving into the Spark building in Sloterdijk, until its final, tailor-made premises are available in Zuidas.
By Mar. 18, close to 350 staff members will have relocated, EMA said, while a number of employees will continue to work in London until they move in the second half of 2019. The agency anticipates losing roughly 25% of its total workforce of 900 employees as a result of the relocation, which is slightly less than the 30% it expected last August.
In separate news, Poland and Slovenia have joined the EMA’s mutual recognition agreement for inspections with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), taking the number of participating EU member states to 22.
The agency said plans are on track for the agreement to be operational in all member states by Jul. 15, 2019. The FDA still has to agree to accept inspections by Bulgaria, Cyprus, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Slovakia.
The mutual recognition means that regulators on both sides of the Atlantic recognize each other’s inspections of manufacturing sites for human medicines.
