EMA Publishes 2021 Annual Report

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) announced the digital publication of its 2021 annual report on June 10, 2022. In the report, the agency presents an overview of its activities and accomplishments for the year. There is also an interactive timeline of the agency’s important milestones that offers additional documents and digital materials. A print-ready version of the report also offers more detailed statistical information and has been published alongside the digital report.

Handling the agency’s response to COVID-19 was a top priority for EMA in 2021, with four vaccines and five treatments being recommended for marketing authorization. Steps were also taken to help step up vaccine manufacturing production to increase the supply of COVID-19 vaccines in the European Union and globally. Lessons learned from the pandemic are also highlighted in the report.

“In light of the experience accrued by EMA while dealing with the public health crisis, EU institutions took first steps towards extending EMA’s role in crisis preparedness and management of medicinal products and medical devices. In [the] future, EMA will also closely monitor and mitigate shortages of medicines and medical devices during major events and public health emergencies and facilitate faster approval of medicines for the treatment or prevention of diseases causing a public health crisis. An overview of the Agency’s activities to prepare for its new legal mandate is provided in the report,” the agency stated in a press release.

EMA’s non-pandemic efforts are also addressed in the report. The agency states that 92 human medicines were given marketing authorization in 2021, 54 of which had new active substances, a 38% increase over 2020. Information about EMA’s regulation of medicines is included in the second chapter of the report.

Source: EMA