At its 60th meeting, held in London on 2 October 2008, the Management Board of the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) welcomed the half-year report for 2008 presented to them by EMEA Executive Director Thomas Lönngren.

Over 145 million U.S. adults use the Internet to research health information, according to pharmaceutical and healthcare market research company Manhattan Research. The company has just released Cybercitizen Health v8.0, a multi-client study and strategic advisory service focused on how consumers use media and technology for health information and its impact on treatment and product decisions.

The European Commission (EC), the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) and the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have affirmed their commitment to regulatory cooperation and to intensifying their interactions in several new areas.

Philips is developing an ultrasound-based drug delivery technology that is designed to increase the effectiveness and reduce the side effects of chemotherapy treatment for certain types of cancer. The system proposes the use of drug-loaded microbubbles, no larger than red blood cells, that can be injected into the patient's bloodstream, tracked via ultrasound imaging, and then ruptured by a focused ultrasound pulse to release their drug payload when they reach the desired spot.

The final report of the Pharmaceutical Forum has been presented in Brussels setting out principles and recommendations on three key challenges in the pharmaceutical landscape. Firstly, how to improve information on diseases and treatments, secondly, how to compare medicines and identify the most effective ones and thirdly how to balance access and reward for innovation within limited healthcare budgets.

A U.S. Food and Drug Administration's analysis provides new evidence that the use of statins does not increase incidence of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a neurodegenerative disease often referred to as "Lou Gehrig's Disease." The analysis was reported on Monday, Sept. 29, 2008 in Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety.

It is now possible to have a global picture of which research organisations and which research areas were funded by the European Commission during the 2001-2006 years (6th European Research Framework Programme). The data has been generated from an online webbased database of competences, supported through an EU specific support action.