Highlights that the devil is in the detail

AnimalhealthEurope is happy to see over four years of intense negotiation come to a head with the European Parliament signing off on the new rules for animal medicines today. The association welcomes these new regulations governing the placing on the market and use of veterinary medicines and medicated feed as a clear message that Europe takes a strong responsibility for the health of its animals. The new rules are expected to become applicable in all EU Member States by the end of 2021 at the earliest. 

“The new rules include measures to help ensure an ever-safer and continued responsible use of animal medicines, including: the establishment of a list of antibiotics deemed ‘critically important’ for human health to be agreed by Europe’s scientific agencies; and improvements for a more responsive and risk-based pharmacovigilance system,” commented Roxane Feller, Secretary General of AnimalhealthEurope. 

“We are confident that the initial objectives of the Commission to simplify existing rules to boost innovation, and streamline procedures to improve the functioning of the internal market, and encourage development of suitable medicines for all animal species across all EU countries have been achieved,” Feller continued.

“The devil is however in the detail,” commented Ms. Feller. “There are a considerable number of implementing measures – 29 in total – meaning that there is still a lot of work to be done to agree the finer details of how we will implement the changes. AnimalhealthEurope looks forward to continuing the dialogue with decision-makers so as to ensure we do all we can to improve the availability of animal health solutions for more animals, in more countries in Europe.”

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