publications

The MEB publishes a variety of documents:

  • Annual reports
  • Policy documents

For MEB meeting reports en CCR minutes, please go to About MEB | News.

Publications about human medicines can be found via: Human medicines | Publications.

Annual reports 
You can download the MEB’s annual report from the right-hand side of this page, in the column ‘More information about Publications’.  

To get a free paper copy of an annual report, please fill out the contact form.

Policy documents
In the Strategic Business Plan for 2009-2013 we identify and discuss five strategic objectives. Our objectives for the next five years are:

  • Clear all assessment backlogs by 2011
  • Continue to develop a scientifically robust, consistent and transparent assessment system
  • Assist and invest in efforts to strengthen the medicinal product regulatory chain, both at national and European level
  • Strengthen scientific underpinning
  • Knowledge must be translated and disseminated.

The MEB had already taken the strategic decision to centralise the entire organisation in Utrecht, as opposed to the five sites spread across the Netherlands that it currently occupies.
Besides bringing together separate parts of the organisation, the new location will also support the MEB’s ‘new working practices’. Core concepts behind this new approach are teamwork, transparency, responsiveness and openness to signals from society at large, creativity and pleasure in work.
The new working practices will need to result in flexible and teleworking initiatives in some areas. All this adds up to an enormous challenge for the organisation and its staff in the coming period. The strategic goals that have been set will help to minimise the possible negative impact of these changes and the associated relocation for our partners.

MEB’s Special-interest areas
This policy paper has been written with the future in mind. In order to be able to plan the recruitment of new clinical assessors more effectively, far-reaching decisions need to be taken. There are two reasons for this. Firstly, Europe (i.e., the EMeA) is requesting more and broader expertise from each of the national regulatory authorities in relation to European assessments. The EMA needs a number of active national authorities that have clearly defined specialised expertise and can guarantee high-quality input. The EMA therefore expects these active national authorities to specialise. This requires a broadening and deepening of expertise in current special-interest areas. The MEB is aware that, in order to achieve this, the number of special-interest areas must be restricted. Secondly, there is a clear need for more clinical assessors within the MEB. The workload is high, and now that the MEB has chosen to be more transparent and open, even more will be required of the clinical assessors. The crucial question is what type of (extra) expertise the MEB will require. This does not in any way mean that the quality of our current expertise is insufficient, but the large number of assessments and the high aims of the MEB result in (too) much being asked of (too) few assessors. As a result, due to pressure of time, quality is sacrificed. If the MEB is to maintain its position within Europe, quality will have to be its driving force.

You can download the MEB's policy documents from the right-hand side of this page, in the column ‘More information about Publications’.

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