EMA has published the revised version of its policies on the handling of competing interests of scientific committee members and experts (‘Policy 0044’) and of the EMA Management Board members (‘Policy 0058’). These policies set out the ground rules on which EMA involves them in its work. The revised policies were adopted by the Management Board in December 2024 and will apply as of May 2025.

Policy 0044 was revised to implement recent court judgements, and its draft revised version was open for public consultation from 10 October to 10 November 2024. EMA received 35 comments from a wide range of stakeholders, including academia, research organisations or learned societies, patients’ and healthcare professionals’ organisations, and the pharmaceutical industry.

Respondents recognised the importance of having clear rules to manage competing interests and broadly acknowledged EMA’s efforts to achieve this in a balanced and proportionate way. Following the public…