New leader for key medicines panel

by Gary Finnegan – Emerging uses of EMA Approved Drugs –

There’s a new man at the helm of the European Medicine Agency’s most influential committee: Dr Tomas Salmonson has been elected as the new chair of the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) for three-year term.

Dr Salmonson, a pharmacist by training, is senior scientific advisor at the Swedish Medical Products Agency (MPA) and has served on the CHMP for 12 years.

His appointment comes after the abrupt departure earlier this year of Dr Eric Adabie who resigned his post in April after a convoluted restructuring at the French medicines regulator saw his contract terminated.

This had a knock-on effect on his position at the EMA as Dr Adabie’s role at the EU medicines watchdog was unpaid (he drew his salary from the French authorities) and his efforts to secure direct payment from the London-based EMA were rebuffed.

The sudden loss of Dr Adabie was a blow to EMA executive director Guido Rasi who took over late last year after a turbulent spell during which the Agency was without a permanent figurehead for almost a year.

The work of the CHMP, which involves recommending whether human medicines should be given marketing licenses, is one of the core pillars of the EMA’s structure. The appointment of the experienced Dr Salmonson for a three-year term, along with the five-year contract agreed by Mr Rasi last year, promises a much-needed period of stability at Europe’s drug regulator.