TOPRA Veterinarian Symposium looks at European Community Policy on Public Health, Deregulation
How does the European Community respond when there is a positive case of Avian Influenza (‘Bird Flu’) or some other highly contagious and potentially harmful disease reported in one Member State? With borderless trading of animals and meat products, the only truly sufficient response is a collective one represented in the Community Animal Health Policy. But there are a number of challenges to emergency vaccination on a large scale across the EU, not least in logistics and clarity of communications.
This is just one of the many fascinating topics to be discussed the forthcoming TOPRA Annual Veterinary Symposium in Budapest. The Veterinary Symposium, now in its 3rd year is a key feature of TOPRA’s ongoing work on animal health and veterinary regulatory affairs professionals in Europe.
This year there are more controversial topics to be discussed than in years past. Rick Clayton, Technical Director of the International Federation of Animal Health Europe and TOPRA working party member said, ‘We are particularly blessed to have a hard-hitting agenda of very topical issues which will spark a lively discussion and debate. These are things which are generating headlines in mainstream media and everyday conversation.’
After the first session, which discusses the Community Animal Health Policy and the post-incident learning points from both Avian Influenza and Bovine TB, delegates to the Veterinary Symposium will hear from David MacKay, the European Medicines’ Agency’s (EMEA) Head of Veterinary Medicines and Inspections and colleague Melanie Leivers on new requirements for information on marketing Authorisations.
The EU has also made veterinary medicine regulations an example of where it looks possible to reduce regulatory burdens. In this case, Regulation 2377/90 ‘Maximum Residue Limits’ will be replaced by new regulations, the draft text of which will be discussed in the afternoon session of the meeting. The final session will link directly back into the theme of the Symposium, Harmonising the regulatory framework’ to take a strategic look at how to make the regulatory environment work better into the future for the industry without compromising consumer safety objectives.
The meeting will have a world-class collection of presenters from National Agencies, the European Commission, EMEA and industry. They include:
- Dr Gábor Kulcsár - Director, Directorate of Veterinary Medicinal Products, Hungary
- Patrick Dehaumont - Co-chair of Heads of Medicines Agency (HMA) Benchmarking Working group and Head of The French National Agency for Veterinary Medicinal Products (Agence Nationale du Médicament Vétérinaire, ANMV, France)
- Francisco Javier Reviriego Gordejo - Head of Sector Disease Control and Identification, DGSanCo
- Esther Werner - Chair, CMD(v) and Head of Section - Bacterial Vaccines and Immune Sera, Department: Department of Veterinary Medicine, Germany
- Declan O’Brien - Managing Director, IFAH Europe, Belgium
- Melanie Leivers - Deputy Head of Sector, Veterinary Marketing Authorisation Procedures, EMEA
- Kornelia Grein - Head of Sector, Safety of Veterinary Medicines, EMEA
- Martin Terberger - Head of Pharmaceuticals Unit, European Commissionv
- Veena Singh - Pfizer Animal Health
- Christophe Debruyne - Federal Agency for Medicines and Health Products, Belgium
