A conference in honour of the 20th anniversary of the European Medicines Agency

19.03.2015.

A conference "Science, Medicines, Health: Patients at the heart of innovation" took place on 18th March 2015 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the European Medicines Agency (EMA). Among the participants was Inguna Adoviča, the Director of the State Agency of Medicines (SAM) and a member of the EMA Management Board already for 10 years.

For 20 years EMA has worked across the EU and globally to protect public health by assessing medicines to rigorous scientific standards and by providing partners and stakeholders with independent, science-based information on medicines. It has ensured the efficacy and safety of medicines for humans and animals across Europe, and promoted research and innovation in medical science.

SAM Director Inguna Adoviča: "The position at the EMA Management Board, which is an integral governance body of the EMA, was a great honour and a privilege to me, because the medicines’ normative regulation system in Europe has changed significantly during the last 10 years. High quality standards have been introduced in the regulation system on a global scale basing on the three main aspects: to ensure that medicines are safe, effective and qualitative. At the same time these have also been exciting years, in which I have tried to adopt and implement the principles, values and culture of EMA management and operation into the everyday practice of the State Agency of Medicines which I have always considered not only as my job, but also as a duty of the heart."

EMA was founded in 1995 and at the beginning it had 16 staff members and two committees. Today, seven EMA scientific committees and more than 30 working parties provide scientific expertise for the regulation of medicines by drawing on a pool of several thousand European scientific experts.