The Belgian authorities are taking steps to reduce the consumption of benzodiazepine-containing medicines, and have also reiterated the risks associated with the increasing use of opioid medications. 

The bedding-in period is ending for Europe’s one-year-old system for preventing the circulation of fake medicines, and the scheme is gearing up for a more fully operational stage. 

EU and US regulators have opposing views when it comes to Merck's applications for a new indication and new dosing schedule for the company's successful PD-1 inhibitor Keytruda.

Regulators have pulled out all the stops in their efforts to get the Ebola vaccine to the marketing authorization stage in Africa. 

At the end of the Brexit transition period, the UK will be charting its own course through the often choppy seas of medicines regulation. While it plans to retain the existing EU rules that have been transposed into domestic legislation, it also wants the freedom to tailor its regulations in areas like clinical trials, advanced therapies and product labeling.

Life science companies will be pleased to hear that the European Parliament is pressing for close cooperation between the UK and the EU in the area of medicines regulation.