Article 106 
1. In order to facilitate the exchange of information on pharmacovigilance within the Community, the Commission, after consulting the Agency, the Member States and interested parties, shall draw up guidelines on the collection, verification and presentation of adverse reaction reports, including technical requirements for electronic exchange of pharmacovigilance information in accordance with internationally agreed formats, and shall publish a reference to an internationally agreed medical terminology. Acting in accordance with the guidelines, marketing authorisation holders shall use internationally agreed medical terminology for the reporting of adverse reactions. These guidelines shall be published in Volume 9 of The Rules governing Medicinal Products in the European Community and shall take account of international harmonisation work carried out in the field of pharmacovigilance. 2. For the interpretation of the definitions referred to in points (11) to (16) of Article 1 and of the principles outlined in this Title, the marketing authorisation holder and the competent authorities shall follow the guidelines referred to in paragraph 1.
Amendment rationale: Context of the proposal 1.1. Grounds for and objectives of the proposal Medicinal products contribute considerably to the health of EU citizens. The discovery, development and effective use of medicinal products improve quality of life, reduce the length of time spent in hospital and save lives. Medicinal products can, however, also have adverse effects and adverse drug reactions present an important public health burden in the Community. It is estimated that 5% of all hospital admissions are due to an adverse drug reaction, 5% of all hospital patients suffer an adverse drug reaction and adverse drug reactions are the fifth most common cause of hospital death. Some adverse reactions will only be detected after a medicine has been authorised and the full safety profile of medicinal products can only be known once they have entered the market. Pharmacovigilance rules are therefore necessary for the protection of public health in order to prevent, detect and assess adverse effects of medicinal products. Community rules so far adopted have made a major contribution to the achievement of the objective that medicinal products authorised to be placed on the Community market are continuously monitored as regards their safety. However, in the light of the experience acquired and following an assessment by the Commission of the Community system of pharmacovigilance, it has become clear that new measures are necessary to improve the operation of the Community rules on the pharmacovigilance of medicinal products for human use. Therefore, the proposals aim at the strengthening and rationalizing the Community pharmacovigilance system of medicinal products for human use through the amendment of the two legal acts governing this field, with the overall objectives of better protecting public health, ensuring proper functioning of the internal market. and simplifying the current rules and procedures. The specific objectives are: - Providing for clear roles and responsibilities for the key responsible parties and clear obligations against which they perform their roles; - Rationalising EU decision-making on drug safety issues in order to deliver measures that are equally and fully implemented for all relevant products and across the Community with a view to preventing unnecessary patient exposure to risks; - Strengthening medicines safety transparency and communication to increase the understanding and trust of patients and health professionals in the safety of medicines and improve the penetration of key warnings; - Strengthening companies' pharmacovigilance systems, allowing companies to improve their systems constantly while reducing administrative burden; - Ensuring the proactive and proportionate collection of high quality data relevant to the safety of medicines through risk management and structured data collection in the form of post authorisation safety studies, together with rationalised single case and periodic reporting of suspected adverse reactions; - Involving stakeholders in pharmacovigilance including through direct patient reporting of suspected adverse reactions and inclusion of patients and heath-care professionals in decision-making. - Simplification of the current Community pharmacovigilance procedures with consequent efficiency gains for both the pharmaceutical industry and medicines regulators. 1.2. General context Pharmacovigilance is defined as the science and activities relating to the detection, assessment, understanding and prevention of adverse effects of medicinal products. The Community has had legislation on medicinal products on pharmacovigilance since 1965. Until now there has been no systematic review of the Community pharmacovigilance legislation, its operation and its effect on protecting public health. Therefore, in 2004 the Commission services launched an independent study into the functioning of the Community pharmacovigilance system. The independent report together with a subsequent broad public consultation revealed several shortcomings. 1.3. Existing provisions in the area of the proposal Harmonised Community rules on the pharmacovigilance of medicinal products for human use are laid down in: - Regulation (EC) No 726/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 31 March 2004 laying down Community procedures for the authorisation and supervision of medicinal products for human and veterinary use and establishing a European Medicines Agency[1], as regards medicinal products authorized by the Commission in accordance with the procedure of that Regulation (the so-called "centralised procedure"); and - Directive 2001/83/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 November 2001 on the Community code relating to medicinal products for human use[2], as regards general rules on medicinal products for human use and specific rules for medicinal products authorised by the Member States. While the rules are broadly the same in substance, there are certain divergences and various provisions are duplicated in the two legal texts. It is appropriate to rationalise and simplify this by laying down all general rules in the Community code on medicinal products for human use (Directive 2001/83/EC), and cross-referring to them in the regulation governing the centralised procedure (Regulation (EC) No 726/2004), with specific provisions for centrally authorised products only when justified. 1.4. Consistency with the other policies and objectives of the Union The proposals are consistent with the overall objective of the Community legislation on medicinal products for human use, which is to remove disparities between national provisions in order to ensure the proper functioning of the internal market for such products, while at the same time safeguarding a high level of protection of public and human health. They are also consistent with Article 152(1) of the Treaty establishing the European Community, which provides that a high level of human health protection shall be ensured in the definition and implementation of all Community policies and activities. The proposal is equally consistent with the Commission patient safety initiative[3] and the Commission work to stimulate innovation in the pharmaceutical sector, through the 7th Framework programme in general and the Innovative Medicines Initiative[4] in particular. The proposal is also consistent with Community projects which aim to develop and validate the use of innovative information technology tools to identify medicines adverse events.
Article 107 
1. Where, as a result of the evaluation of pharmacovigilance data, a Member State considers that a marketing authorisation should be suspended, revoked or varied in accordance with the guidelines referred to in Article 106(1), it shall forthwith inform the Agency, the other Member States and the marketing authorisation holder. 2. Where urgent action to protect public health is necessary, the Member State concerned may suspend the marketing authorisation of a medicinal product, provided that the Agency, the Commission and the other Member States are informed no later than the following working day. When the Agency is informed in accordance with paragraph 1 in relation to suspensions and revocation, or the first subparagraph of this paragraph, the Committee shall prepare an opinion within a time-frame to be determined depending on the urgency of the matter. In relation to variations, the Committee may upon request from a Member State prepare an opinion. Acting on the basis of this opinion, the Commission may request all Member States in which the product is being marketed to take temporary measures immediately. The decision on the final measures concerning the product shall be adopted in accordance with the management procedure referred to in Article 121(3).
Amendment rationale: Context of the proposal 1.1. Grounds for and objectives of the proposal Medicinal products contribute considerably to the health of EU citizens. The discovery, development and effective use of medicinal products improve quality of life, reduce the length of time spent in hospital and save lives. Medicinal products can, however, also have adverse effects and adverse drug reactions present an important public health burden in the Community. It is estimated that 5% of all hospital admissions are due to an adverse drug reaction, 5% of all hospital patients suffer an adverse drug reaction and adverse drug reactions are the fifth most common cause of hospital death. Some adverse reactions will only be detected after a medicine has been authorised and the full safety profile of medicinal products can only be known once they have entered the market. Pharmacovigilance rules are therefore necessary for the protection of public health in order to prevent, detect and assess adverse effects of medicinal products. Community rules so far adopted have made a major contribution to the achievement of the objective that medicinal products authorised to be placed on the Community market are continuously monitored as regards their safety. However, in the light of the experience acquired and following an assessment by the Commission of the Community system of pharmacovigilance, it has become clear that new measures are necessary to improve the operation of the Community rules on the pharmacovigilance of medicinal products for human use. Therefore, the proposals aim at the strengthening and rationalizing the Community pharmacovigilance system of medicinal products for human use through the amendment of the two legal acts governing this field, with the overall objectives of better protecting public health, ensuring proper functioning of the internal market. and simplifying the current rules and procedures. The specific objectives are: - Providing for clear roles and responsibilities for the key responsible parties and clear obligations against which they perform their roles; - Rationalising EU decision-making on drug safety issues in order to deliver measures that are equally and fully implemented for all relevant products and across the Community with a view to preventing unnecessary patient exposure to risks; - Strengthening medicines safety transparency and communication to increase the understanding and trust of patients and health professionals in the safety of medicines and improve the penetration of key warnings; - Strengthening companies' pharmacovigilance systems, allowing companies to improve their systems constantly while reducing administrative burden; - Ensuring the proactive and proportionate collection of high quality data relevant to the safety of medicines through risk management and structured data collection in the form of post authorisation safety studies, together with rationalised single case and periodic reporting of suspected adverse reactions; - Involving stakeholders in pharmacovigilance including through direct patient reporting of suspected adverse reactions and inclusion of patients and heath-care professionals in decision-making. - Simplification of the current Community pharmacovigilance procedures with consequent efficiency gains for both the pharmaceutical industry and medicines regulators. 1.2. General context Pharmacovigilance is defined as the science and activities relating to the detection, assessment, understanding and prevention of adverse effects of medicinal products. The Community has had legislation on medicinal products on pharmacovigilance since 1965. Until now there has been no systematic review of the Community pharmacovigilance legislation, its operation and its effect on protecting public health. Therefore, in 2004 the Commission services launched an independent study into the functioning of the Community pharmacovigilance system. The independent report together with a subsequent broad public consultation revealed several shortcomings. 1.3. Existing provisions in the area of the proposal Harmonised Community rules on the pharmacovigilance of medicinal products for human use are laid down in: - Regulation (EC) No 726/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 31 March 2004 laying down Community procedures for the authorisation and supervision of medicinal products for human and veterinary use and establishing a European Medicines Agency[1], as regards medicinal products authorized by the Commission in accordance with the procedure of that Regulation (the so-called "centralised procedure"); and - Directive 2001/83/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 November 2001 on the Community code relating to medicinal products for human use[2], as regards general rules on medicinal products for human use and specific rules for medicinal products authorised by the Member States. While the rules are broadly the same in substance, there are certain divergences and various provisions are duplicated in the two legal texts. It is appropriate to rationalise and simplify this by laying down all general rules in the Community code on medicinal products for human use (Directive 2001/83/EC), and cross-referring to them in the regulation governing the centralised procedure (Regulation (EC) No 726/2004), with specific provisions for centrally authorised products only when justified. 1.4. Consistency with the other policies and objectives of the Union The proposals are consistent with the overall objective of the Community legislation on medicinal products for human use, which is to remove disparities between national provisions in order to ensure the proper functioning of the internal market for such products, while at the same time safeguarding a high level of protection of public and human health. They are also consistent with Article 152(1) of the Treaty establishing the European Community, which provides that a high level of human health protection shall be ensured in the definition and implementation of all Community policies and activities. The proposal is equally consistent with the Commission patient safety initiative[3] and the Commission work to stimulate innovation in the pharmaceutical sector, through the 7th Framework programme in general and the Innovative Medicines Initiative[4] in particular. The proposal is also consistent with Community projects which aim to develop and validate the use of innovative information technology tools to identify medicines adverse events.
Article 108 
The Commission shall adopt any amendments which may be necessary to update provisions of Articles 101 to 107 to take account of scientific and technical progress. Those measures, designed to amend non-essential elements of this Directive, shall be adopted in accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny referred to in Article 121(2a).
Amendment rationale: Context of the proposal 1.1. Grounds for and objectives of the proposal Medicinal products contribute considerably to the health of EU citizens. The discovery, development and effective use of medicinal products improve quality of life, reduce the length of time spent in hospital and save lives. Medicinal products can, however, also have adverse effects and adverse drug reactions present an important public health burden in the Community. It is estimated that 5% of all hospital admissions are due to an adverse drug reaction, 5% of all hospital patients suffer an adverse drug reaction and adverse drug reactions are the fifth most common cause of hospital death. Some adverse reactions will only be detected after a medicine has been authorised and the full safety profile of medicinal products can only be known once they have entered the market. Pharmacovigilance rules are therefore necessary for the protection of public health in order to prevent, detect and assess adverse effects of medicinal products. Community rules so far adopted have made a major contribution to the achievement of the objective that medicinal products authorised to be placed on the Community market are continuously monitored as regards their safety. However, in the light of the experience acquired and following an assessment by the Commission of the Community system of pharmacovigilance, it has become clear that new measures are necessary to improve the operation of the Community rules on the pharmacovigilance of medicinal products for human use. Therefore, the proposals aim at the strengthening and rationalizing the Community pharmacovigilance system of medicinal products for human use through the amendment of the two legal acts governing this field, with the overall objectives of better protecting public health, ensuring proper functioning of the internal market. and simplifying the current rules and procedures. The specific objectives are: - Providing for clear roles and responsibilities for the key responsible parties and clear obligations against which they perform their roles; - Rationalising EU decision-making on drug safety issues in order to deliver measures that are equally and fully implemented for all relevant products and across the Community with a view to preventing unnecessary patient exposure to risks; - Strengthening medicines safety transparency and communication to increase the understanding and trust of patients and health professionals in the safety of medicines and improve the penetration of key warnings; - Strengthening companies' pharmacovigilance systems, allowing companies to improve their systems constantly while reducing administrative burden; - Ensuring the proactive and proportionate collection of high quality data relevant to the safety of medicines through risk management and structured data collection in the form of post authorisation safety studies, together with rationalised single case and periodic reporting of suspected adverse reactions; - Involving stakeholders in pharmacovigilance including through direct patient reporting of suspected adverse reactions and inclusion of patients and heath-care professionals in decision-making. - Simplification of the current Community pharmacovigilance procedures with consequent efficiency gains for both the pharmaceutical industry and medicines regulators. 1.2. General context Pharmacovigilance is defined as the science and activities relating to the detection, assessment, understanding and prevention of adverse effects of medicinal products. The Community has had legislation on medicinal products on pharmacovigilance since 1965. Until now there has been no systematic review of the Community pharmacovigilance legislation, its operation and its effect on protecting public health. Therefore, in 2004 the Commission services launched an independent study into the functioning of the Community pharmacovigilance system. The independent report together with a subsequent broad public consultation revealed several shortcomings. 1.3. Existing provisions in the area of the proposal Harmonised Community rules on the pharmacovigilance of medicinal products for human use are laid down in: - Regulation (EC) No 726/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 31 March 2004 laying down Community procedures for the authorisation and supervision of medicinal products for human and veterinary use and establishing a European Medicines Agency[1], as regards medicinal products authorized by the Commission in accordance with the procedure of that Regulation (the so-called "centralised procedure"); and - Directive 2001/83/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 November 2001 on the Community code relating to medicinal products for human use[2], as regards general rules on medicinal products for human use and specific rules for medicinal products authorised by the Member States. While the rules are broadly the same in substance, there are certain divergences and various provisions are duplicated in the two legal texts. It is appropriate to rationalise and simplify this by laying down all general rules in the Community code on medicinal products for human use (Directive 2001/83/EC), and cross-referring to them in the regulation governing the centralised procedure (Regulation (EC) No 726/2004), with specific provisions for centrally authorised products only when justified. 1.4. Consistency with the other policies and objectives of the Union The proposals are consistent with the overall objective of the Community legislation on medicinal products for human use, which is to remove disparities between national provisions in order to ensure the proper functioning of the internal market for such products, while at the same time safeguarding a high level of protection of public and human health. They are also consistent with Article 152(1) of the Treaty establishing the European Community, which provides that a high level of human health protection shall be ensured in the definition and implementation of all Community policies and activities. The proposal is equally consistent with the Commission patient safety initiative[3] and the Commission work to stimulate innovation in the pharmaceutical sector, through the 7th Framework programme in general and the Innovative Medicines Initiative[4] in particular. The proposal is also consistent with Community projects which aim to develop and validate the use of innovative information technology tools to identify medicines adverse events.
Article 109 
For the collection and testing of human blood and human plasma, Directive 2002/98/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 January 2003 setting standards of quality and safety for the collection, testing, processing, storage and distribution of human blood and blood components and amending Directive 2001/83/EC ( 31 ) shall apply.
Article 110 
Member States shall take the necessary measures to promote Community self-sufficiency in human blood or human plasma. For this purpose, they shall encourage the voluntary unpaid donation of blood and plasma and shall take the necessary measures to develop the production and use of products derived from human blood or human plasma coming from voluntary unpaid donations. They shall notify the Commission of such measures.
Article 111 
1. The competent authority of the Member State concerned shall ensure, by means of repeated inspections, and if necessary unannounced inspections, and, where appropriate, by asking an Official Medicines Control Laboratory or a laboratory designated for that purpose to carry out tests on samples, that the legal requirements governing medicinal products are complied with. The competent authority may also carry out unannounced inspections at the premises of manufacturers of active substances used as starting materials, or at the premises of marketing authorisation holders whenever it considers that there are grounds for suspecting non-compliance with the principles and guidelines of good manufacturing practice referred to in Article 47. These inspections may also be carried out at the request of a Member State, the Commission or the Agency. In order to verify whether the data submitted in order to obtain a conformity certificate comply with the monographs of the European Pharmacopoeia, the standardisation body of the nomenclatures and the quality norms within the meaning of the Convention relating to the elaboration of the European Pharmacopoeia ( 32 ) (European Directorate for the quality of Medicinal Products) may ask the Commission or the Agency to request such an inspection when the starting material concerned is the subject of a European Pharmacopoeia monograph. The competent authority of the Member State concerned may carry out inspections of starting material manufacturers at the specific request of the manufacturer himself. Such inspections shall be carried out by officials representing the competent authority who shall be empowered to: (a) inspect the manufacturing or commercial establishments of manufacturers of medicinal products or of active substances used as starting materials, and any laboratories employed by the holder of the manufacturing authorisation to carry out checks pursuant to Article 20; (b) take samples including with a view to independent tests being carried out by an Official Medicines Control Laboratory or a laboratory designated for that purpose by a Member State; (c) examine any documents relating to the object of the inspection, subject to the provisions in force in the Member States on 21 May 1975 placing restrictions on these powers with regard to the description of the manufacturing method; (d) inspect the premises, records and documents of marketing authorisation holders or any firms employed by the marketing authorisation holder to perform the activities described in Title IX, and in particular Articles 103 and 104. 2. Member States shall take all appropriate steps to ensure that the manufacturing processes used in the manufacture of immunological products are properly validated and attain batch-to-batch consistency. 3. After every inspection as referred to in paragraph 1, the officials representing the competent authority shall report on whether the manufacturer complies with the principles and guidelines of good manufacturing practice laid down in Article 47 or, where appropriate, with the requirements laid down in Articles 101 to 108. The content of such reports shall be communicated to the manufacturer or marketing authorisation holder who has undergone the inspection. 4. Without prejudice to any arrangements which may have been concluded between the Community and third countries, a Member State, the Commission or the Agency may require a manufacturer established in a third country to submit to an inspection as referred to in paragraph 1. 5. Within 90 days of an inspection as referred to in paragraph 1, a certificate of good manufacturing practice shall be issued to a manufacturer if the outcome of the inspection shows that the manufacturer complies with the principles and guidelines of good manufacturing practice as provided for by Community legislation. If inspections are performed as part of the certification procedure for the monographs of the European Pharmacopoeia, a certificate shall be drawn up. 6. Member States shall enter the certificates of good manufacturing practice which they issue in a Community database managed by the Agency on behalf of the Community. 7. If the outcome of the inspection as referred to in paragraph 1 is that the manufacturer does not comply with the principles and guidelines of good manufacturing practice as provided for by Community legislation, the information shall be entered in the Community database as referred to in paragraph 6.
Amendment rationale: Context of the proposal 1.1. Grounds for and objectives of the proposal Medicinal products contribute considerably to the health of EU citizens. The discovery, development and effective use of medicinal products improve quality of life, reduce the length of time spent in hospital and save lives. Medicinal products can, however, also have adverse effects and adverse drug reactions present an important public health burden in the Community. It is estimated that 5% of all hospital admissions are due to an adverse drug reaction, 5% of all hospital patients suffer an adverse drug reaction and adverse drug reactions are the fifth most common cause of hospital death. Some adverse reactions will only be detected after a medicine has been authorised and the full safety profile of medicinal products can only be known once they have entered the market. Pharmacovigilance rules are therefore necessary for the protection of public health in order to prevent, detect and assess adverse effects of medicinal products. Community rules so far adopted have made a major contribution to the achievement of the objective that medicinal products authorised to be placed on the Community market are continuously monitored as regards their safety. However, in the light of the experience acquired and following an assessment by the Commission of the Community system of pharmacovigilance, it has become clear that new measures are necessary to improve the operation of the Community rules on the pharmacovigilance of medicinal products for human use. Therefore, the proposals aim at the strengthening and rationalizing the Community pharmacovigilance system of medicinal products for human use through the amendment of the two legal acts governing this field, with the overall objectives of better protecting public health, ensuring proper functioning of the internal market. and simplifying the current rules and procedures. The specific objectives are: - Providing for clear roles and responsibilities for the key responsible parties and clear obligations against which they perform their roles; - Rationalising EU decision-making on drug safety issues in order to deliver measures that are equally and fully implemented for all relevant products and across the Community with a view to preventing unnecessary patient exposure to risks; - Strengthening medicines safety transparency and communication to increase the understanding and trust of patients and health professionals in the safety of medicines and improve the penetration of key warnings; - Strengthening companies' pharmacovigilance systems, allowing companies to improve their systems constantly while reducing administrative burden; - Ensuring the proactive and proportionate collection of high quality data relevant to the safety of medicines through risk management and structured data collection in the form of post authorisation safety studies, together with rationalised single case and periodic reporting of suspected adverse reactions; - Involving stakeholders in pharmacovigilance including through direct patient reporting of suspected adverse reactions and inclusion of patients and heath-care professionals in decision-making. - Simplification of the current Community pharmacovigilance procedures with consequent efficiency gains for both the pharmaceutical industry and medicines regulators. 1.2. General context Pharmacovigilance is defined as the science and activities relating to the detection, assessment, understanding and prevention of adverse effects of medicinal products. The Community has had legislation on medicinal products on pharmacovigilance since 1965. Until now there has been no systematic review of the Community pharmacovigilance legislation, its operation and its effect on protecting public health. Therefore, in 2004 the Commission services launched an independent study into the functioning of the Community pharmacovigilance system. The independent report together with a subsequent broad public consultation revealed several shortcomings. 1.3. Existing provisions in the area of the proposal Harmonised Community rules on the pharmacovigilance of medicinal products for human use are laid down in: - Regulation (EC) No 726/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 31 March 2004 laying down Community procedures for the authorisation and supervision of medicinal products for human and veterinary use and establishing a European Medicines Agency[1], as regards medicinal products authorized by the Commission in accordance with the procedure of that Regulation (the so-called "centralised procedure"); and - Directive 2001/83/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 November 2001 on the Community code relating to medicinal products for human use[2], as regards general rules on medicinal products for human use and specific rules for medicinal products authorised by the Member States. While the rules are broadly the same in substance, there are certain divergences and various provisions are duplicated in the two legal texts. It is appropriate to rationalise and simplify this by laying down all general rules in the Community code on medicinal products for human use (Directive 2001/83/EC), and cross-referring to them in the regulation governing the centralised procedure (Regulation (EC) No 726/2004), with specific provisions for centrally authorised products only when justified. 1.4. Consistency with the other policies and objectives of the Union The proposals are consistent with the overall objective of the Community legislation on medicinal products for human use, which is to remove disparities between national provisions in order to ensure the proper functioning of the internal market for such products, while at the same time safeguarding a high level of protection of public and human health. They are also consistent with Article 152(1) of the Treaty establishing the European Community, which provides that a high level of human health protection shall be ensured in the definition and implementation of all Community policies and activities. The proposal is equally consistent with the Commission patient safety initiative[3] and the Commission work to stimulate innovation in the pharmaceutical sector, through the 7th Framework programme in general and the Innovative Medicines Initiative[4] in particular. The proposal is also consistent with Community projects which aim to develop and validate the use of innovative information technology tools to identify medicines adverse events.
Revised version (Article 111 ):
1. The competent authority of the Member State concerned shall, in cooperation with the Agency, ensure that the legal requirements governing medicinal products are complied with, by means of inspections, if necessary unannounced, and, where appropriate, by asking an Official Medicines Control Laboratory or a laboratory designated for that purpose to carry out tests on samples. This cooperation shall consist in sharing information with the Agency on both inspections that are planned and that have been conducted. Member States and the Agency shall cooperate in the coordination of inspections in third countries. The competent authority may also carry out unannounced inspections at the premises of manufacturers of active substances used as starting materials, or at the premises of marketing authorisation holders whenever it considers that there are grounds for suspecting non-compliance with the principles and guidelines of good manufacturing practice referred to in Article 47. These inspections may also be carried out at the request of a Member State, the Commission or the Agency. In order to verify whether the data submitted in order to obtain a conformity certificate comply with the monographs of the European Pharmacopoeia, the standardisation body of the nomenclatures and the quality norms within the meaning of the Convention relating to the elaboration of the European Pharmacopoeia ( 31 ) (European Directorate for the quality of Medicinal Products) may ask the Commission or the Agency to request such an inspection when the starting material concerned is the subject of a European Pharmacopoeia monograph. The competent authority of the Member State concerned may carry out inspections of starting material manufacturers at the specific request of the manufacturer himself. Such inspections shall be carried out by officials representing the competent authority who shall be empowered to: (a) inspect the manufacturing or commercial establishments of manufacturers of medicinal products or of active substances used as starting materials, and any laboratories employed by the holder of the manufacturing authorisation to carry out checks pursuant to Article 20; (b) take samples including with a view to independent tests being carried out by an Official Medicines Control Laboratory or a laboratory designated for that purpose by a Member State; (c) examine any documents relating to the object of the inspection, subject to the provisions in force in the Member States on 21 May 1975 placing restrictions on these powers with regard to the description of the manufacturing method; (d) inspect the premises, records, documents and pharmacovigilance system master file of the marketing authorisation holder or any firms employed by the marketing authorisation holder to perform the activities described in Title IX. 2. Member States shall take all appropriate steps to ensure that the manufacturing processes used in the manufacture of immunological products are properly validated and attain batch-to-batch consistency. 3. After every inspection referred to in paragraph 1, the competent authority shall report on whether the inspected entity complies with the principles and guidelines of good manufacturing practice and good distribution practices referred to in Articles 47 and 84, or whether the marketing authorisation holder complies with the requirements laid down in Title IX. The competent authority which carried out the inspection shall communicate the content of those reports to the inspected entity. Before adopting the report, the competent authority shall give the inspected entity concerned the opportunity to submit comments. 4. Without prejudice to any arrangements which may have been concluded between the Community and third countries, a Member State, the Commission or the Agency may require a manufacturer established in a third country to submit to an inspection as referred to in paragraph 1. 5. Within 90 days of an inspection as referred to in paragraph 1, a certificate of good manufacturing practice shall be issued to a manufacturer if the outcome of the inspection shows that the manufacturer complies with the principles and guidelines of good manufacturing practice as provided for by Community legislation. If inspections are performed as part of the certification procedure for the monographs of the European Pharmacopoeia, a certificate shall be drawn up. 6. Member States shall enter the certificates of good manufacturing practice which they issue in a Community database managed by the Agency on behalf of the Community. 7. If the outcome of the inspection as referred to in points (a), (b) and (c) of paragraph 1 or the outcome of an inspection of a distributor of medicinal products or active substances or a manufacturer of excipients used as starting materials is that the inspected entity does not comply with the legal requirements and/or the principles and guidelines of good manufacturing practice or good distribution practices as provided for by Union law, the information shall be entered in the Union database as provided for in paragraph 6. 8. If the outcome of the inspection referred to in paragraph 1(d) is that the marketing authorisation holder does not comply with the pharmacovigilance system as described in the pharmacovigilance system master file and with Title IX, the competent authority of the Member State concerned shall bring the deficiencies to the attention of the marketing authorisation holder and give him the opportunity to submit comments. In such case the Member State concerned shall inform the other Member States, the Agency and the Commission. Where appropriate, the Member State concerned shall take the necessary measures to ensure that a marketing authorisation holder is subject to effective, proportionate and dissuasive penalties.
Article 112 
Member States shall take all appropriate measures to ensure that the holder of the marketing authorization for a medicinal product and, where appropriate, the holder of the manufacturing authorization, furnish proof of the controls carried out on the medicinal product and/or the ingredients and of the controls carried out at an intermediate stage of the manufacturing process, in accordance with the methods laid down in Article 8(3)(h).
Article 113 
For the purpose of implementing Article 112, Member States may require manufacturers of immunological products to submit to a competent authority copies of all the control reports signed by the qualified person in accordance with Article 51.
Article 114 
1. Where it considers it necessary in the interests of public health, a Member State may require the holder of an authorization for marketing: — live vaccines, — immunological medicinal products used in the primary immunization of infants or of other groups at risk, — immunological medicinal products used in public health immunization programmes, — new immunological medicinal products or immunological medicinal products manufactured using new or altered kinds of technology or new for a particular manufacturer, during a transitional period normally specified in the marketing authorization, 1. to submit samples from each batch of the bulk and/or the medicinal product for examination by an Official Medicines Control Laboratory or a laboratory that a Member State has designated for that purpose before release on to the market unless, in the case of a batch manufactured in another Member State, the competent authority of that Member State has previously examined the batch in question and declared it to be in conformity with the approved specifications. Member States shall ensure that any such examination is completed within 60 days of the receipt of the samples. 2. Where, in the interests of public health, the laws of a Member State so provide, the competent authorities may require the marketing authorization holder for medicinal products derived from human blood or human plasma to submit samples from each batch of the bulk and/or the medicinal product for testing by an Official Medicines Control Laboratory or a laboratory that a Member State has designated for that purpose before being released into free circulation, unless the competent authorities of another Member State have previously examined the batch in question and declared it to be in conformity with the approved specifications. Member States shall ensure that any such examination is completed within 60 days of the receipt of the samples.
Article 115 
Member States shall take all necessary measures to ensure that the manufacturing and purifying processes used in the preparation of medicinal products derived from human blood or human plasma are properly validated, attain batch-to-batch consistency and guarantee, insofar as the state of technology permits, the absence of specific viral contamination. To this end manufacturers shall notify the competent authorities of the method used to reduce or eliminate pathogenic viruses liable to be transmitted by medicinal products derived from human blood or human plasma. The competent authority may submit samples of the bulk and/or the medicinal product for testing by a State laboratory or a laboratory designated for that purpose, either during the examination of the application pursuant to Article 19, or after a marketing authorization has been granted.
Article 116 
The competent authorities shall suspend, revoke, withdraw or vary a marketing authorisation if the view is taken that the product is harmful under normal conditions of use, or that it lacks therapeutic efficacy, or that the risk-benefit balance is not positive under the normal conditions of use, or that its qualitative and quantitative composition is not as declared. Therapeutic efficacy is lacking when it is concluded that therapeutic results cannot be obtained from the medicinal product. An authorisation shall also be suspended, revoked, withdrawn or varied where the particulars supporting the application as provided for in Article 8 or Articles 10, 10a, 10b, 10c and 11 are incorrect or have not been amended in accordance with Article 23, or where the controls referred to in Article 112 have not been carried out.
Amendment rationale: Context of the proposal 1.1. Grounds for and objectives of the proposal Medicinal products contribute considerably to the health of EU citizens. The discovery, development and effective use of medicinal products improve quality of life, reduce the length of time spent in hospital and save lives. Medicinal products can, however, also have adverse effects and adverse drug reactions present an important public health burden in the Community. It is estimated that 5% of all hospital admissions are due to an adverse drug reaction, 5% of all hospital patients suffer an adverse drug reaction and adverse drug reactions are the fifth most common cause of hospital death. Some adverse reactions will only be detected after a medicine has been authorised and the full safety profile of medicinal products can only be known once they have entered the market. Pharmacovigilance rules are therefore necessary for the protection of public health in order to prevent, detect and assess adverse effects of medicinal products. Community rules so far adopted have made a major contribution to the achievement of the objective that medicinal products authorised to be placed on the Community market are continuously monitored as regards their safety. However, in the light of the experience acquired and following an assessment by the Commission of the Community system of pharmacovigilance, it has become clear that new measures are necessary to improve the operation of the Community rules on the pharmacovigilance of medicinal products for human use. Therefore, the proposals aim at the strengthening and rationalizing the Community pharmacovigilance system of medicinal products for human use through the amendment of the two legal acts governing this field, with the overall objectives of better protecting public health, ensuring proper functioning of the internal market. and simplifying the current rules and procedures. The specific objectives are: - Providing for clear roles and responsibilities for the key responsible parties and clear obligations against which they perform their roles; - Rationalising EU decision-making on drug safety issues in order to deliver measures that are equally and fully implemented for all relevant products and across the Community with a view to preventing unnecessary patient exposure to risks; - Strengthening medicines safety transparency and communication to increase the understanding and trust of patients and health professionals in the safety of medicines and improve the penetration of key warnings; - Strengthening companies' pharmacovigilance systems, allowing companies to improve their systems constantly while reducing administrative burden; - Ensuring the proactive and proportionate collection of high quality data relevant to the safety of medicines through risk management and structured data collection in the form of post authorisation safety studies, together with rationalised single case and periodic reporting of suspected adverse reactions; - Involving stakeholders in pharmacovigilance including through direct patient reporting of suspected adverse reactions and inclusion of patients and heath-care professionals in decision-making. - Simplification of the current Community pharmacovigilance procedures with consequent efficiency gains for both the pharmaceutical industry and medicines regulators. 1.2. General context Pharmacovigilance is defined as the science and activities relating to the detection, assessment, understanding and prevention of adverse effects of medicinal products. The Community has had legislation on medicinal products on pharmacovigilance since 1965. Until now there has been no systematic review of the Community pharmacovigilance legislation, its operation and its effect on protecting public health. Therefore, in 2004 the Commission services launched an independent study into the functioning of the Community pharmacovigilance system. The independent report together with a subsequent broad public consultation revealed several shortcomings. 1.3. Existing provisions in the area of the proposal Harmonised Community rules on the pharmacovigilance of medicinal products for human use are laid down in: - Regulation (EC) No 726/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 31 March 2004 laying down Community procedures for the authorisation and supervision of medicinal products for human and veterinary use and establishing a European Medicines Agency[1], as regards medicinal products authorized by the Commission in accordance with the procedure of that Regulation (the so-called "centralised procedure"); and - Directive 2001/83/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 November 2001 on the Community code relating to medicinal products for human use[2], as regards general rules on medicinal products for human use and specific rules for medicinal products authorised by the Member States. While the rules are broadly the same in substance, there are certain divergences and various provisions are duplicated in the two legal texts. It is appropriate to rationalise and simplify this by laying down all general rules in the Community code on medicinal products for human use (Directive 2001/83/EC), and cross-referring to them in the regulation governing the centralised procedure (Regulation (EC) No 726/2004), with specific provisions for centrally authorised products only when justified. 1.4. Consistency with the other policies and objectives of the Union The proposals are consistent with the overall objective of the Community legislation on medicinal products for human use, which is to remove disparities between national provisions in order to ensure the proper functioning of the internal market for such products, while at the same time safeguarding a high level of protection of public and human health. They are also consistent with Article 152(1) of the Treaty establishing the European Community, which provides that a high level of human health protection shall be ensured in the definition and implementation of all Community policies and activities. The proposal is equally consistent with the Commission patient safety initiative[3] and the Commission work to stimulate innovation in the pharmaceutical sector, through the 7th Framework programme in general and the Innovative Medicines Initiative[4] in particular. The proposal is also consistent with Community projects which aim to develop and validate the use of innovative information technology tools to identify medicines adverse events.
Revised version (Article 116 ):
The competent authorities shall suspend, revoke or vary a marketing authorisation if the view is taken that the medicinal product is harmful or that it lacks therapeutic efficacy, or that the risk-benefit balance is not favourable, or that its qualitative and quantitative composition is not as declared. Therapeutic efficacy shall be considered to be lacking when it is concluded that therapeutic results cannot be obtained from the medicinal product. A marketing authorisation may also be suspended, revoked or varied where the particulars supporting the application as provided for in Articles 8, 10 or 11 are incorrect or have not been amended in accordance with Article 23, or where any conditions referred to in Articles 21a, 22 or 22a have not been fulfilled or where the controls referred to in Article 112 have not been carried out.
Article 117 
1. Without prejudice to the measures provided for in Article 116, Member States shall take all appropriate steps to ensure that the supply of the medicinal product is prohibited and the medicinal product withdrawn from the market, if the view is taken that: (a) the medicinal product is harmful under normal conditions of use; or (b) it lacks therapeutic efficacy; or (c) the risk-benefit balance is not favourable under the authorised conditions of use; or (d) its qualitative and quantitative composition is not as declared; or (e) the controls on the medicinal product and/or on the ingredients and the controls at an intermediate stage of the manufacturing process have not been carried out or if some other requirement or obligation relating to the grant of the manufacturing authorisation has not been fulfilled. 2. The competent authority may limit the prohibition to supply the product, or its withdrawal from the market, to those batches which are the subject of dispute.
Amendment rationale: Context of the proposal 1.1. Grounds for and objectives of the proposal Medicinal products contribute considerably to the health of EU citizens. The discovery, development and effective use of medicinal products improve quality of life, reduce the length of time spent in hospital and save lives. Medicinal products can, however, also have adverse effects and adverse drug reactions present an important public health burden in the Community. It is estimated that 5% of all hospital admissions are due to an adverse drug reaction, 5% of all hospital patients suffer an adverse drug reaction and adverse drug reactions are the fifth most common cause of hospital death. Some adverse reactions will only be detected after a medicine has been authorised and the full safety profile of medicinal products can only be known once they have entered the market. Pharmacovigilance rules are therefore necessary for the protection of public health in order to prevent, detect and assess adverse effects of medicinal products. Community rules so far adopted have made a major contribution to the achievement of the objective that medicinal products authorised to be placed on the Community market are continuously monitored as regards their safety. However, in the light of the experience acquired and following an assessment by the Commission of the Community system of pharmacovigilance, it has become clear that new measures are necessary to improve the operation of the Community rules on the pharmacovigilance of medicinal products for human use. Therefore, the proposals aim at the strengthening and rationalizing the Community pharmacovigilance system of medicinal products for human use through the amendment of the two legal acts governing this field, with the overall objectives of better protecting public health, ensuring proper functioning of the internal market. and simplifying the current rules and procedures. The specific objectives are: - Providing for clear roles and responsibilities for the key responsible parties and clear obligations against which they perform their roles; - Rationalising EU decision-making on drug safety issues in order to deliver measures that are equally and fully implemented for all relevant products and across the Community with a view to preventing unnecessary patient exposure to risks; - Strengthening medicines safety transparency and communication to increase the understanding and trust of patients and health professionals in the safety of medicines and improve the penetration of key warnings; - Strengthening companies' pharmacovigilance systems, allowing companies to improve their systems constantly while reducing administrative burden; - Ensuring the proactive and proportionate collection of high quality data relevant to the safety of medicines through risk management and structured data collection in the form of post authorisation safety studies, together with rationalised single case and periodic reporting of suspected adverse reactions; - Involving stakeholders in pharmacovigilance including through direct patient reporting of suspected adverse reactions and inclusion of patients and heath-care professionals in decision-making. - Simplification of the current Community pharmacovigilance procedures with consequent efficiency gains for both the pharmaceutical industry and medicines regulators. 1.2. General context Pharmacovigilance is defined as the science and activities relating to the detection, assessment, understanding and prevention of adverse effects of medicinal products. The Community has had legislation on medicinal products on pharmacovigilance since 1965. Until now there has been no systematic review of the Community pharmacovigilance legislation, its operation and its effect on protecting public health. Therefore, in 2004 the Commission services launched an independent study into the functioning of the Community pharmacovigilance system. The independent report together with a subsequent broad public consultation revealed several shortcomings. 1.3. Existing provisions in the area of the proposal Harmonised Community rules on the pharmacovigilance of medicinal products for human use are laid down in: - Regulation (EC) No 726/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 31 March 2004 laying down Community procedures for the authorisation and supervision of medicinal products for human and veterinary use and establishing a European Medicines Agency[1], as regards medicinal products authorized by the Commission in accordance with the procedure of that Regulation (the so-called "centralised procedure"); and - Directive 2001/83/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 November 2001 on the Community code relating to medicinal products for human use[2], as regards general rules on medicinal products for human use and specific rules for medicinal products authorised by the Member States. While the rules are broadly the same in substance, there are certain divergences and various provisions are duplicated in the two legal texts. It is appropriate to rationalise and simplify this by laying down all general rules in the Community code on medicinal products for human use (Directive 2001/83/EC), and cross-referring to them in the regulation governing the centralised procedure (Regulation (EC) No 726/2004), with specific provisions for centrally authorised products only when justified. 1.4. Consistency with the other policies and objectives of the Union The proposals are consistent with the overall objective of the Community legislation on medicinal products for human use, which is to remove disparities between national provisions in order to ensure the proper functioning of the internal market for such products, while at the same time safeguarding a high level of protection of public and human health. They are also consistent with Article 152(1) of the Treaty establishing the European Community, which provides that a high level of human health protection shall be ensured in the definition and implementation of all Community policies and activities. The proposal is equally consistent with the Commission patient safety initiative[3] and the Commission work to stimulate innovation in the pharmaceutical sector, through the 7th Framework programme in general and the Innovative Medicines Initiative[4] in particular. The proposal is also consistent with Community projects which aim to develop and validate the use of innovative information technology tools to identify medicines adverse events.
Revised version (Article 117 ):
1. Without prejudice to the measures provided for in Article 116, Member States shall take all appropriate steps to ensure that the supply of the medicinal product is prohibited and the medicinal product withdrawn from the market, if the view is taken that: (a) the medicinal product is harmful; or (b) it lacks therapeutic efficacy; or (c) the risk-benefit balance is not favourable; or (d) its qualitative and quantitative composition is not as declared; or (e) the controls on the medicinal product and/or on the ingredients and the controls at an intermediate stage of the manufacturing process have not been carried out or if some other requirement or obligation relating to the grant of the manufacturing authorisation has not been fulfilled. 2. The competent authority may limit the prohibition to supply the product, or its withdrawal from the market, to those batches which are the subject of dispute. 3. The competent authority may, for a medicinal product for which the supply has been prohibited or which has been withdrawn from the market in accordance with paragraphs 1 and 2, in exceptional circumstances during a transitional period allow the supply of the medicinal product to patients who are already being treated with the medicinal product.
Article 118 
1. The competent authority shall suspend or revoke the marketing authorization for a category of preparations or all preparations where any one of the requirements laid down in Article 41 is no longer met. 2. In addition to the measures specified in Article 117, the competent authority may suspend manufacture or imports of medicinal products coming from third countries, or suspend or revoke the manufacturing authorization for a category of preparations or all preparations where Articles 42, 46, 51 and 112 are not complied with.
Article 119 
The provisions of this Title shall apply to homeopathic medicinal products.
Article 120 
The Commission shall adopt any changes which are necessary in order to adapt Annex I to take account of scientific and technical progress. Those measures, designed to amend non-essential elements of this Directive, shall be adopted in accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny referred to in Article 121(2a).
Article 121 
1. The Commission shall be assisted by the Standing Committee on Medicinal Products for Human Use, hereinafter called ‘the Standing Committee’, in the task of adapting to technical progress the directives on the removal of technical barriers to trade in the medicinal products sector. 2. Where reference is made to this paragraph, Articles 5 and 7 of Decision 1999/468/EC shall apply, having regard to the provisions of Article 8 thereof. The period laid down in Article 5(6) of Decision 1999/468/EC shall be set at three months. 2a. Where reference is made to this paragraph, Article 5a(1) to (4) and Article 7 of Decision 1999/468/EC shall apply, having regard to the provisions of Article 8 thereof. 3. Where reference is made to this paragraph, Articles 4 and 7 of Decision 1999/468/EC shall apply, having regard to the provisions of Article 8 thereof. The period laid down in Article 4(3) of Decision 1999/468/EC shall be set at one month. 4. The rules of procedure of the Standing Committee shall be made public.
Article 122 
1. Member States shall take all appropriate measures to ensure that the competent authorities concerned communicate to each other such information as is appropriate to guarantee that the requirements placed on the authorisations referred to in Articles 40 and 77, on the certificates referred to in Article 111(5) or on the marketing authorisations are fulfilled. 2. Upon reasoned request, Member States shall forthwith communicate the reports referred to in Article 111(3) to the competent authorities of another Member State. 3. The conclusions reached in accordance with Article 111(1) shall be valid throughout the Community. However, in exceptional cases, if a Member State is unable, for reasons relating to public health, to accept the conclusions reached following an inspection under Article 111(1), that Member State shall forthwith inform the Commission and the Agency. The Agency shall inform the Member States concerned. When the Commission is informed of these divergences of opinion, it may, after consulting the Member States concerned, ask the inspector who performed the original inspection to perform a new inspection; the inspector may be accompanied by two other inspectors from Member States which are not parties to the disagreement.
Amendment rationale: Context of the proposal 1.1. Grounds for and objectives of the proposal Medicinal products contribute considerably to the health of EU citizens. The discovery, development and effective use of medicinal products improve quality of life, reduce the length of time spent in hospital and save lives. Medicinal products can, however, also have adverse effects and adverse drug reactions present an important public health burden in the Community. It is estimated that 5% of all hospital admissions are due to an adverse drug reaction, 5% of all hospital patients suffer an adverse drug reaction and adverse drug reactions are the fifth most common cause of hospital death. Some adverse reactions will only be detected after a medicine has been authorised and the full safety profile of medicinal products can only be known once they have entered the market. Pharmacovigilance rules are therefore necessary for the protection of public health in order to prevent, detect and assess adverse effects of medicinal products. Community rules so far adopted have made a major contribution to the achievement of the objective that medicinal products authorised to be placed on the Community market are continuously monitored as regards their safety. However, in the light of the experience acquired and following an assessment by the Commission of the Community system of pharmacovigilance, it has become clear that new measures are necessary to improve the operation of the Community rules on the pharmacovigilance of medicinal products for human use. Therefore, the proposals aim at the strengthening and rationalizing the Community pharmacovigilance system of medicinal products for human use through the amendment of the two legal acts governing this field, with the overall objectives of better protecting public health, ensuring proper functioning of the internal market. and simplifying the current rules and procedures. The specific objectives are: - Providing for clear roles and responsibilities for the key responsible parties and clear obligations against which they perform their roles; - Rationalising EU decision-making on drug safety issues in order to deliver measures that are equally and fully implemented for all relevant products and across the Community with a view to preventing unnecessary patient exposure to risks; - Strengthening medicines safety transparency and communication to increase the understanding and trust of patients and health professionals in the safety of medicines and improve the penetration of key warnings; - Strengthening companies' pharmacovigilance systems, allowing companies to improve their systems constantly while reducing administrative burden; - Ensuring the proactive and proportionate collection of high quality data relevant to the safety of medicines through risk management and structured data collection in the form of post authorisation safety studies, together with rationalised single case and periodic reporting of suspected adverse reactions; - Involving stakeholders in pharmacovigilance including through direct patient reporting of suspected adverse reactions and inclusion of patients and heath-care professionals in decision-making. - Simplification of the current Community pharmacovigilance procedures with consequent efficiency gains for both the pharmaceutical industry and medicines regulators. 1.2. General context Pharmacovigilance is defined as the science and activities relating to the detection, assessment, understanding and prevention of adverse effects of medicinal products. The Community has had legislation on medicinal products on pharmacovigilance since 1965. Until now there has been no systematic review of the Community pharmacovigilance legislation, its operation and its effect on protecting public health. Therefore, in 2004 the Commission services launched an independent study into the functioning of the Community pharmacovigilance system. The independent report together with a subsequent broad public consultation revealed several shortcomings. 1.3. Existing provisions in the area of the proposal Harmonised Community rules on the pharmacovigilance of medicinal products for human use are laid down in: - Regulation (EC) No 726/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 31 March 2004 laying down Community procedures for the authorisation and supervision of medicinal products for human and veterinary use and establishing a European Medicines Agency[1], as regards medicinal products authorized by the Commission in accordance with the procedure of that Regulation (the so-called "centralised procedure"); and - Directive 2001/83/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 November 2001 on the Community code relating to medicinal products for human use[2], as regards general rules on medicinal products for human use and specific rules for medicinal products authorised by the Member States. While the rules are broadly the same in substance, there are certain divergences and various provisions are duplicated in the two legal texts. It is appropriate to rationalise and simplify this by laying down all general rules in the Community code on medicinal products for human use (Directive 2001/83/EC), and cross-referring to them in the regulation governing the centralised procedure (Regulation (EC) No 726/2004), with specific provisions for centrally authorised products only when justified. 1.4. Consistency with the other policies and objectives of the Union The proposals are consistent with the overall objective of the Community legislation on medicinal products for human use, which is to remove disparities between national provisions in order to ensure the proper functioning of the internal market for such products, while at the same time safeguarding a high level of protection of public and human health. They are also consistent with Article 152(1) of the Treaty establishing the European Community, which provides that a high level of human health protection shall be ensured in the definition and implementation of all Community policies and activities. The proposal is equally consistent with the Commission patient safety initiative[3] and the Commission work to stimulate innovation in the pharmaceutical sector, through the 7th Framework programme in general and the Innovative Medicines Initiative[4] in particular. The proposal is also consistent with Community projects which aim to develop and validate the use of innovative information technology tools to identify medicines adverse events.
Revised version (Article 122 ):
1. Member States shall take all appropriate measures to ensure that the competent authorities concerned communicate to each other such information as is appropriate to guarantee that the requirements placed on the authorisations referred to in Articles 40 and 77, on the certificates referred to in Article 111(5) or on the marketing authorisations are fulfilled. 2. Upon reasoned request, Member States shall send electronically the reports referred to in Article 111(3) to the competent authorities of another Member State or to the Agency. 3. The conclusions reached in accordance with Article 111(1) shall be valid throughout the Community. However, in exceptional cases, if a Member State is unable, for reasons relating to public health, to accept the conclusions reached following an inspection under Article 111(1), that Member State shall forthwith inform the Commission and the Agency. The Agency shall inform the Member States concerned. When the Commission is informed of these divergences of opinion, it may, after consulting the Member States concerned, ask the inspector who performed the original inspection to perform a new inspection; the inspector may be accompanied by two other inspectors from Member States which are not parties to the disagreement.
Article 123 
1. Each Member State shall take all the appropriate measures to ensure that decisions authorizing marketing, refusing or revoking a marketing authorization, cancelling a decision refusing or revoking a marketing authorization, prohibiting supply, or withdrawing a product from the market, together with the reasons on which such decisions are based, are brought to the attention of the Agency forthwith. 2. The marketing authorization holder shall be obliged to notify the Member States concerned forthwith of any action taken by him to suspend the marketing of a medicinal product or to withdraw a medicinal product from the market, together with the reasons for such action if the latter concerns the efficacy of the medicinal product or the protection of public health. Member States shall ensure that this information is brought to the attention of the Agency. 3. Member States shall ensure that appropriate information about action taken pursuant to paragraphs 1 and 2 which may affect the protection of public health in third countries is forthwith brought to the attention of the World Health Organization, with a copy to the Agency. 4. The Commission shall publish annually a list of the medicinal products which are prohibited in the Community.
Amendment rationale: Context of the proposal 1.1. Grounds for and objectives of the proposal Medicinal products contribute considerably to the health of EU citizens. The discovery, development and effective use of medicinal products improve quality of life, reduce the length of time spent in hospital and save lives. Medicinal products can, however, also have adverse effects and adverse drug reactions present an important public health burden in the Community. It is estimated that 5% of all hospital admissions are due to an adverse drug reaction, 5% of all hospital patients suffer an adverse drug reaction and adverse drug reactions are the fifth most common cause of hospital death. Some adverse reactions will only be detected after a medicine has been authorised and the full safety profile of medicinal products can only be known once they have entered the market. Pharmacovigilance rules are therefore necessary for the protection of public health in order to prevent, detect and assess adverse effects of medicinal products. Community rules so far adopted have made a major contribution to the achievement of the objective that medicinal products authorised to be placed on the Community market are continuously monitored as regards their safety. However, in the light of the experience acquired and following an assessment by the Commission of the Community system of pharmacovigilance, it has become clear that new measures are necessary to improve the operation of the Community rules on the pharmacovigilance of medicinal products for human use. Therefore, the proposals aim at the strengthening and rationalizing the Community pharmacovigilance system of medicinal products for human use through the amendment of the two legal acts governing this field, with the overall objectives of better protecting public health, ensuring proper functioning of the internal market. and simplifying the current rules and procedures. The specific objectives are: - Providing for clear roles and responsibilities for the key responsible parties and clear obligations against which they perform their roles; - Rationalising EU decision-making on drug safety issues in order to deliver measures that are equally and fully implemented for all relevant products and across the Community with a view to preventing unnecessary patient exposure to risks; - Strengthening medicines safety transparency and communication to increase the understanding and trust of patients and health professionals in the safety of medicines and improve the penetration of key warnings; - Strengthening companies' pharmacovigilance systems, allowing companies to improve their systems constantly while reducing administrative burden; - Ensuring the proactive and proportionate collection of high quality data relevant to the safety of medicines through risk management and structured data collection in the form of post authorisation safety studies, together with rationalised single case and periodic reporting of suspected adverse reactions; - Involving stakeholders in pharmacovigilance including through direct patient reporting of suspected adverse reactions and inclusion of patients and heath-care professionals in decision-making. - Simplification of the current Community pharmacovigilance procedures with consequent efficiency gains for both the pharmaceutical industry and medicines regulators. 1.2. General context Pharmacovigilance is defined as the science and activities relating to the detection, assessment, understanding and prevention of adverse effects of medicinal products. The Community has had legislation on medicinal products on pharmacovigilance since 1965. Until now there has been no systematic review of the Community pharmacovigilance legislation, its operation and its effect on protecting public health. Therefore, in 2004 the Commission services launched an independent study into the functioning of the Community pharmacovigilance system. The independent report together with a subsequent broad public consultation revealed several shortcomings. 1.3. Existing provisions in the area of the proposal Harmonised Community rules on the pharmacovigilance of medicinal products for human use are laid down in: - Regulation (EC) No 726/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 31 March 2004 laying down Community procedures for the authorisation and supervision of medicinal products for human and veterinary use and establishing a European Medicines Agency[1], as regards medicinal products authorized by the Commission in accordance with the procedure of that Regulation (the so-called "centralised procedure"); and - Directive 2001/83/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 November 2001 on the Community code relating to medicinal products for human use[2], as regards general rules on medicinal products for human use and specific rules for medicinal products authorised by the Member States. While the rules are broadly the same in substance, there are certain divergences and various provisions are duplicated in the two legal texts. It is appropriate to rationalise and simplify this by laying down all general rules in the Community code on medicinal products for human use (Directive 2001/83/EC), and cross-referring to them in the regulation governing the centralised procedure (Regulation (EC) No 726/2004), with specific provisions for centrally authorised products only when justified. 1.4. Consistency with the other policies and objectives of the Union The proposals are consistent with the overall objective of the Community legislation on medicinal products for human use, which is to remove disparities between national provisions in order to ensure the proper functioning of the internal market for such products, while at the same time safeguarding a high level of protection of public and human health. They are also consistent with Article 152(1) of the Treaty establishing the European Community, which provides that a high level of human health protection shall be ensured in the definition and implementation of all Community policies and activities. The proposal is equally consistent with the Commission patient safety initiative[3] and the Commission work to stimulate innovation in the pharmaceutical sector, through the 7th Framework programme in general and the Innovative Medicines Initiative[4] in particular. The proposal is also consistent with Community projects which aim to develop and validate the use of innovative information technology tools to identify medicines adverse events.
Revised version (Article 123 ):
1. Each Member State shall take all the appropriate measures to ensure that decisions authorizing marketing, refusing or revoking a marketing authorization, cancelling a decision refusing or revoking a marketing authorization, prohibiting supply, or withdrawing a product from the market, together with the reasons on which such decisions are based, are brought to the attention of the Agency forthwith. 2. The marketing authorization holder shall be obliged to notify the Member States concerned forthwith of any action taken by him to suspend the marketing of a medicinal product or to withdraw a medicinal product from the market, together with the reasons for such action if the latter concerns the efficacy of the medicinal product or the protection of public health. Member States shall ensure that this information is brought to the attention of the Agency. 3. Member States shall ensure that appropriate information about action taken pursuant to paragraphs 1 and 2 which may affect the protection of public health in third countries is forthwith brought to the attention of the World Health Organization, with a copy to the Agency. 4. The Agency shall make public annually a list of the medicinal products for which marketing authorisations have been refused, revoked or suspended, whose supply has been prohibited or which have been withdrawn from the market.
Article 124 
Member States shall communicate to each other all the information necessary to guarantee the quality and safety of homeopathic medicinal products manufactured and marketed within the Community, and in particular the information referred to in Articles 122 and 123.
Article 125 
Every decision referred to in this Directive which is taken by the competent authority of a Member State shall state in detail the reasons on which it is based. Such decision shall be notified to the party concerned, together with information as to the redress available to him under the laws in force and of the time-limit allowed for access to such redress. Decisions to grant or revoke a marketing authorisation shall be made publicly available.
Article 126 
An authorization to market a medicinal product shall not be refused, suspended or revoked except on the grounds set out in this Directive. No decision concerning suspension of manufacture or of importation of medicinal products coming from third countries, prohibition of supply or withdrawal from the market of a medicinal product may be taken except on the grounds set out in Articles 117 and 118.
Article 126a 
1. In the absence of a marketing authorisation or of a pending application for a medicinal product authorised in another Member State in accordance with this Directive, a Member State may for justified public health reasons authorise the placing on the market of the said medicinal product. 2. When a Member State avails itself of this possibility, it shall adopt the necessary measures in order to ensure that the requirements of this Directive are complied with, in particular those referred to in Titles V, VI, VIII, IX and XI. 3. Before granting such an authorisation a Member State shall: (a) notify the marketing authorisation holder, in the Member State in which the medicinal product concerned is authorised, of the proposal to grant an authorisation under this Article in respect of the product concerned; and (b) request the competent authority in that State to furnish a copy of the assessment report referred to in Article 21(4) and of the marketing authorisation in force in respect of the said medicinal product. 4. The Commission shall set up a publicly accessible register of medicinal products authorised under paragraph 1. Member States shall notify the Commission if any medicinal product is authorised, or ceases to be authorised, under paragraph 1, including the name or corporate name and permanent address of the authorisation holder. The Commission shall amend the register of medicinal products accordingly and make this register available on their website. 5. No later than 30 April 2008, the Commission shall present a report to the European Parliament and the Council concerning the application of this provision with a view to proposing any necessary amendments.
Amendment rationale: Context of the proposal 1.1. Grounds for and objectives of the proposal Medicinal products contribute considerably to the health of EU citizens. The discovery, development and effective use of medicinal products improve quality of life, reduce the length of time spent in hospital and save lives. Medicinal products can, however, also have adverse effects and adverse drug reactions present an important public health burden in the Community. It is estimated that 5% of all hospital admissions are due to an adverse drug reaction, 5% of all hospital patients suffer an adverse drug reaction and adverse drug reactions are the fifth most common cause of hospital death. Some adverse reactions will only be detected after a medicine has been authorised and the full safety profile of medicinal products can only be known once they have entered the market. Pharmacovigilance rules are therefore necessary for the protection of public health in order to prevent, detect and assess adverse effects of medicinal products. Community rules so far adopted have made a major contribution to the achievement of the objective that medicinal products authorised to be placed on the Community market are continuously monitored as regards their safety. However, in the light of the experience acquired and following an assessment by the Commission of the Community system of pharmacovigilance, it has become clear that new measures are necessary to improve the operation of the Community rules on the pharmacovigilance of medicinal products for human use. Therefore, the proposals aim at the strengthening and rationalizing the Community pharmacovigilance system of medicinal products for human use through the amendment of the two legal acts governing this field, with the overall objectives of better protecting public health, ensuring proper functioning of the internal market. and simplifying the current rules and procedures. The specific objectives are: - Providing for clear roles and responsibilities for the key responsible parties and clear obligations against which they perform their roles; - Rationalising EU decision-making on drug safety issues in order to deliver measures that are equally and fully implemented for all relevant products and across the Community with a view to preventing unnecessary patient exposure to risks; - Strengthening medicines safety transparency and communication to increase the understanding and trust of patients and health professionals in the safety of medicines and improve the penetration of key warnings; - Strengthening companies' pharmacovigilance systems, allowing companies to improve their systems constantly while reducing administrative burden; - Ensuring the proactive and proportionate collection of high quality data relevant to the safety of medicines through risk management and structured data collection in the form of post authorisation safety studies, together with rationalised single case and periodic reporting of suspected adverse reactions; - Involving stakeholders in pharmacovigilance including through direct patient reporting of suspected adverse reactions and inclusion of patients and heath-care professionals in decision-making. - Simplification of the current Community pharmacovigilance procedures with consequent efficiency gains for both the pharmaceutical industry and medicines regulators. 1.2. General context Pharmacovigilance is defined as the science and activities relating to the detection, assessment, understanding and prevention of adverse effects of medicinal products. The Community has had legislation on medicinal products on pharmacovigilance since 1965. Until now there has been no systematic review of the Community pharmacovigilance legislation, its operation and its effect on protecting public health. Therefore, in 2004 the Commission services launched an independent study into the functioning of the Community pharmacovigilance system. The independent report together with a subsequent broad public consultation revealed several shortcomings. 1.3. Existing provisions in the area of the proposal Harmonised Community rules on the pharmacovigilance of medicinal products for human use are laid down in: - Regulation (EC) No 726/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 31 March 2004 laying down Community procedures for the authorisation and supervision of medicinal products for human and veterinary use and establishing a European Medicines Agency[1], as regards medicinal products authorized by the Commission in accordance with the procedure of that Regulation (the so-called "centralised procedure"); and - Directive 2001/83/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 November 2001 on the Community code relating to medicinal products for human use[2], as regards general rules on medicinal products for human use and specific rules for medicinal products authorised by the Member States. While the rules are broadly the same in substance, there are certain divergences and various provisions are duplicated in the two legal texts. It is appropriate to rationalise and simplify this by laying down all general rules in the Community code on medicinal products for human use (Directive 2001/83/EC), and cross-referring to them in the regulation governing the centralised procedure (Regulation (EC) No 726/2004), with specific provisions for centrally authorised products only when justified. 1.4. Consistency with the other policies and objectives of the Union The proposals are consistent with the overall objective of the Community legislation on medicinal products for human use, which is to remove disparities between national provisions in order to ensure the proper functioning of the internal market for such products, while at the same time safeguarding a high level of protection of public and human health. They are also consistent with Article 152(1) of the Treaty establishing the European Community, which provides that a high level of human health protection shall be ensured in the definition and implementation of all Community policies and activities. The proposal is equally consistent with the Commission patient safety initiative[3] and the Commission work to stimulate innovation in the pharmaceutical sector, through the 7th Framework programme in general and the Innovative Medicines Initiative[4] in particular. The proposal is also consistent with Community projects which aim to develop and validate the use of innovative information technology tools to identify medicines adverse events.
Revised version (Article 126a ):
1. In the absence of a marketing authorisation or of a pending application for a medicinal product authorised in another Member State in accordance with this Directive, a Member State may for justified public health reasons authorise the placing on the market of the said medicinal product. 2. When a Member State avails itself of this possibility, it shall adopt the necessary measures in order to ensure that the requirements of this Directive are complied with, in particular those referred to in Titles V, VI, VIII, IX and XI. Member States may decide that Article 63(1) and (2) shall not apply to medicinal products authorised under paragraph 1. 3. Before granting such a marketing authorisation, a Member State: (a) shall notify the marketing authorisation holder, in the Member State in which the medicinal product concerned is authorised, of the proposal to grant a marketing authorisation under this Article in respect of the medicinal product concerned. (b) may request the competent authority in that Member State to submit copies of the assessment report referred to in Article 21(4) and of the marketing authorisation in force in respect of the medicinal product concerned. If so requested, the competent authority in that Member State shall supply, within 30 days of receipt of the request, a copy of the assessment report and the marketing authorisation in respect of the medicinal product concerned. 4. The Commission shall set up a publicly accessible register of medicinal products authorised under paragraph 1. Member States shall notify the Commission if any medicinal product is authorised, or ceases to be authorised, under paragraph 1, including the name or corporate name and permanent address of the authorisation holder. The Commission shall amend the register of medicinal products accordingly and make this register available on their website. 5. No later than 30 April 2008, the Commission shall present a report to the European Parliament and the Council concerning the application of this provision with a view to proposing any necessary amendments.
Article 126b 
In order to guarantee independence and transparency, the Member States shall ensure that members of staff of the competent authority responsible for granting authorisations, rapporteurs and experts concerned with the authorisation and surveillance of medicinal products have no financial or other interests in the pharmaceutical industry which could affect their impartiality. These persons shall make an annual declaration of their financial interests. In addition, the Member States shall ensure that the competent authority makes publicly accessible its rules of procedure and those of its committees, agendas for its meetings and records of its meetings, accompanied by decisions taken, details of votes and explanations of votes, including minority opinions.
Article 127 
1. At the request of the manufacturer, the exporter or the authorities of an importing third country, Member States shall certify that a manufacturer of medicinal products is in possession of the manufacturing authorization. When issuing such certificates Member States shall comply with the following conditions: (a) they shall have regard to the prevailing administrative arrangements of the World Health Organization; (b) for medicinal products intended for export which are already authorized on their territory, they shall supply the summary of the product characteristics as approved in accordance with Article 21. 2. When the manufacturer is not in possession of a marketing authorization he shall provide the authorities responsible for establishing the certificate referred to in paragraph 1, with a declaration explaining why no marketing authorization is available.
Article 127a 
When a medicinal product is to be authorised in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 726/2004 and the Scientific Committee in its opinion refers to recommended conditions or restrictions with regard to the safe and effective use of the medicinal product as provided for in Article 9(4)(c) of that Regulation, a decision addressed to the Member States shall be adopted in accordance with the procedure provided for in Articles 33 and 34 of this Directive, for the implementation of those conditions or restrictions.
Amendment rationale: Context of the proposal 1.1. Grounds for and objectives of the proposal Medicinal products contribute considerably to the health of EU citizens. The discovery, development and effective use of medicinal products improve quality of life, reduce the length of time spent in hospital and save lives. Medicinal products can, however, also have adverse effects and adverse drug reactions present an important public health burden in the Community. It is estimated that 5% of all hospital admissions are due to an adverse drug reaction, 5% of all hospital patients suffer an adverse drug reaction and adverse drug reactions are the fifth most common cause of hospital death. Some adverse reactions will only be detected after a medicine has been authorised and the full safety profile of medicinal products can only be known once they have entered the market. Pharmacovigilance rules are therefore necessary for the protection of public health in order to prevent, detect and assess adverse effects of medicinal products. Community rules so far adopted have made a major contribution to the achievement of the objective that medicinal products authorised to be placed on the Community market are continuously monitored as regards their safety. However, in the light of the experience acquired and following an assessment by the Commission of the Community system of pharmacovigilance, it has become clear that new measures are necessary to improve the operation of the Community rules on the pharmacovigilance of medicinal products for human use. Therefore, the proposals aim at the strengthening and rationalizing the Community pharmacovigilance system of medicinal products for human use through the amendment of the two legal acts governing this field, with the overall objectives of better protecting public health, ensuring proper functioning of the internal market. and simplifying the current rules and procedures. The specific objectives are: - Providing for clear roles and responsibilities for the key responsible parties and clear obligations against which they perform their roles; - Rationalising EU decision-making on drug safety issues in order to deliver measures that are equally and fully implemented for all relevant products and across the Community with a view to preventing unnecessary patient exposure to risks; - Strengthening medicines safety transparency and communication to increase the understanding and trust of patients and health professionals in the safety of medicines and improve the penetration of key warnings; - Strengthening companies' pharmacovigilance systems, allowing companies to improve their systems constantly while reducing administrative burden; - Ensuring the proactive and proportionate collection of high quality data relevant to the safety of medicines through risk management and structured data collection in the form of post authorisation safety studies, together with rationalised single case and periodic reporting of suspected adverse reactions; - Involving stakeholders in pharmacovigilance including through direct patient reporting of suspected adverse reactions and inclusion of patients and heath-care professionals in decision-making. - Simplification of the current Community pharmacovigilance procedures with consequent efficiency gains for both the pharmaceutical industry and medicines regulators. 1.2. General context Pharmacovigilance is defined as the science and activities relating to the detection, assessment, understanding and prevention of adverse effects of medicinal products. The Community has had legislation on medicinal products on pharmacovigilance since 1965. Until now there has been no systematic review of the Community pharmacovigilance legislation, its operation and its effect on protecting public health. Therefore, in 2004 the Commission services launched an independent study into the functioning of the Community pharmacovigilance system. The independent report together with a subsequent broad public consultation revealed several shortcomings. 1.3. Existing provisions in the area of the proposal Harmonised Community rules on the pharmacovigilance of medicinal products for human use are laid down in: - Regulation (EC) No 726/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 31 March 2004 laying down Community procedures for the authorisation and supervision of medicinal products for human and veterinary use and establishing a European Medicines Agency[1], as regards medicinal products authorized by the Commission in accordance with the procedure of that Regulation (the so-called "centralised procedure"); and - Directive 2001/83/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 November 2001 on the Community code relating to medicinal products for human use[2], as regards general rules on medicinal products for human use and specific rules for medicinal products authorised by the Member States. While the rules are broadly the same in substance, there are certain divergences and various provisions are duplicated in the two legal texts. It is appropriate to rationalise and simplify this by laying down all general rules in the Community code on medicinal products for human use (Directive 2001/83/EC), and cross-referring to them in the regulation governing the centralised procedure (Regulation (EC) No 726/2004), with specific provisions for centrally authorised products only when justified. 1.4. Consistency with the other policies and objectives of the Union The proposals are consistent with the overall objective of the Community legislation on medicinal products for human use, which is to remove disparities between national provisions in order to ensure the proper functioning of the internal market for such products, while at the same time safeguarding a high level of protection of public and human health. They are also consistent with Article 152(1) of the Treaty establishing the European Community, which provides that a high level of human health protection shall be ensured in the definition and implementation of all Community policies and activities. The proposal is equally consistent with the Commission patient safety initiative[3] and the Commission work to stimulate innovation in the pharmaceutical sector, through the 7th Framework programme in general and the Innovative Medicines Initiative[4] in particular. The proposal is also consistent with Community projects which aim to develop and validate the use of innovative information technology tools to identify medicines adverse events.
Revised version (Article 127a ):
When a medicinal product is to be authorised in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 726/2004, and the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use in its opinion refers to recommended conditions or restrictions as provided for in points (c), (ca), (cb) or (cc) of Article 9(4) thereof, the Commission may adopt a decision addressed to the Member States, in accordance with Articles 33 and 34 of this Directive, for the implementation of those conditions or restrictions.
Article 127b 
Member States shall ensure that appropriate collection systems are in place for medicinal products that are unused or have expired.
Article 128 
Directives 65/65/EEC, 75/318/EEC, 75/319/EEC, 89/342/EEC, 89/343/EEC, 89/381/EEC, 92/25/EEC, 92/26/EEC, 92/27/EEC, 92/28/EEC and 92/73/EEC, amended by the Directives referred to in Annex II, Part A, are repealed, without prejudice to the obligations of the Member States concerning the time-limits for implementation set out in Annex II, Part B. References to the repealed Directives shall be construed as references to this Directive and shall be read in accordance with the correlation table in Annex III.
Article 129 
This Directive shall enter into force on the twentieth day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Communities .
Article 130 
This Directive is addressed to the Member States.