EMA cancer symposium: New approaches in patient-focused cancer medicine development
On Thursday, 29 October, EMA is hosting a symposium to discuss new approaches to facilitating and using input from cancer patients to inform medicine development and regulatory decision-making.
The 
agenda of the symposium , which will be held virtually due to the ongoing pandemic is available. The event can be followed via live broadcast on the event page.
The purpose of the symposium is to identify opportunities and come up with recommendations to further advance patients’ contribution and involvement in data collection, development and evaluation of cancer treatments. This will help EMA to translate any recommendations into concrete actions to further improve cancer treatment development and regulation.
“Involving cancer patients in the regulatory process is important because they can provide critical input based on their real-life experiences with the disease and its treatment,” said Guido Rasi, EMA’s Executive Director. “Their contributions are deeply embedded in the scientific work and regulatory output of EMA.”
Advancing patient-centred access to medicines in partnership with healthcare systems is one of the key goals of EMA’s Regulatory Science Strategy to 2025 that was published earlier this year. Finding synergies with health technology assessment organisations on data generation during clinical development and post-authorisation studies is critical to fostering patient involvement and access to innovative medicines.
According to the European Commission Joint Research Committee (JRC), cancer burden is estimated to have risen to 2.7 million new cases (all types, excluding non-melanoma skin cancer) and 1.3 million deaths in the EU in 2020.
Over recent years, many new medicines for the treatment of cancer came to the market with a potential for curative treatments. Scientific progress in the underlying mechanisms of the disease has opened up new avenues for the development of personalised medicines. EMA remains engaged in the search for new and improved treatments against cancer and continues to actively engage with patients, even in these exceptional times, when so much effort and resources are being dedicated to fighting the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
The symposium will bring together representatives from the European Commission, regulatory authorities, patient organisations, the pharmaceutical industry and academia. They will exchange views on the evolving role of patients in the EU regulatory space and share reflections on the progress made in these areas over the past 25 years.
The presentations and a video recording will be published on the event page after the symposium.
