The European Medicines Agency has started to receive data on H1N1 pandemic vaccines and the review began in July, with the commitment from the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use, to fast-track the review of data as vaccine manufacturers make them available.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is taking several actions to reduce the risk of overdose in patients using pain medications such as Darvon and Darvocet that contain propoxyphene. The actions were taken because of data linking propoxyphene and fatal overdoses.

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), the European Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (ECDC) and the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) have published today a joint Scientific Report on meticillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in livestock, pets and foods.

The European Medicines Agency has recommended that the shelf life of Tamiflu capsules should be extended from five to seven years. Once formally approved by the European Commission, this will apply to all newly manufactured Tamiflu capsules.

The PROTECT project (Pharmacoepidemiological Research on Outcomes of Therapeutics by a European ConsorTium) has been accepted for funding by the Innovative Medicines Initiative Joint Undertaking (IMI JU). PROTECT is a collaborative European project aiming to develop innovative methods in pharmacoepidemiology and pharmacovigilance.

The European Medicines Agency, the European Commission and Health Canada, the Canadian regulatory authority for medicines, have agreed on an implementation plan for their confidentiality arrangement. The implementation plan details the process for both regular and ad-hoc exchanges of information, and describes the process for monitoring the progress of the implementation plan.

The European Medicines Agency (EMEA) has recommended the suspension of the marketing authorisation for Raptiva (efalizumab), from Serono. The EMEA's Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) has concluded that the benefits of Raptiva no longer outweigh its risks, because of safety concerns, including the occurrence of progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML) in patients taking the medicine.