EMA to team up with Australia on ‘orphan’ diseases

The European Medicines Agency has announced it is to team up with Australia to work on the evaluation of medicines for rare diseases.

Under the agreement, the EMA and the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration will share scientific information submitted on the treatments, known as orphan medicines. The aim is to accelerate access to medicines for patients with rare diseases, on which there is often limited scientific information.

“Global collaboration on orphan medicines is important in view of the small number of patients worldwide and the need for the limited number of studies performed to benefit patients regardless of where they live,” states the EMA.