Professor Gino Martini (EIPG Past-President) acted as respondent on the panel "New Models of Innovation for Affordable Medicines" during the meeting "Can EU citizens afford their medicines? The economic crisis and access to medicines in Europe" in the European Parliament on Thursday 16th May. The meeting included representatives from the European Parliament, the European Commission, pharmaceutical and medical professions and a large number of non-governmental organisations. John Chave (Pharmaceutical Group of the European Union) and Aida Batista (European Association of Hospital Pharmacists) presented the results of their surveys on medicines shortages. Subsequently, the representative organisations for European community, hospital and industrial pharmacists issued a joint call for action by Governments, regulators and the European Commission to tackle the growing problem of medicines shortages. More information is available in the Press Release.

Jean-Pierre Paccioni, Responsible pharmacist of GlaxoSmithKline France and chairman of section B (representing industrial pharmacists) within the French Chamber of pharmacists, has been elected President of the European Industrial Pharmacists Group (EIPG) for 3 years. More information is available in the Press Release.

EIPG has submitted its feedback to the proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Directive 2005/36/EC on the recognition of professional qualifications and Regulation on administrative cooperation through the Internal Market Information System. An update on developments in this consultation process is provided by the European University Association.

Retired MHRA Senior Inspector Anthony Trill writes in the Pharmaceutical Journal on the latest revision to EU GMP for computerised systems. With the permission of the author and the Pharmaceutical Journal, his article is available on the EIPG website.

The Swedish Medical Products Agency has published a paper entitled "Platform to enable the initiation of a revision of EU legislation on Good Manufacturing Practice, GMP, in order for legislation also to comprehend environmental considerations". The document is available on the Agency's website.

The European Medicines Agency (EMEA) has published a concept paper on “the Revision of Chapter 7 of the GMP guide” (EMEA/INS/GMP/648678/2009). The document is available on the EMEA's website. As an interested party, EIPG is preparing a position paper in response to this document. Comments are welcome and may be e-mailed to info@eipg.eu, or submitted to your national representative (see Member States) by the 10th January, 2010.

VAPI-UPIP is proud to announce a follow-up on the workshop ‘Interactive Round Table Quality Risk Management’ of November last year. In collaboration with David Begg Associates, on Tuesday 24 November, a 1 day course will be organized on ‘Risk Based decision Making’. More information is available in the attachment.

The process of the degregulation of the Swedish pharmacy monopoly continues. A brief note on the process to date is available here.

Seen or heard the term “QP” or “qualified person” and wondered what it meant? Interested in the career opportunities provided by the pharmaceutical industry? Malcolm E. Brown outlines what QPs do and how to become one, and Sadia Khan follows with a more detailed look at the QP registration process. (Tomorrow's Pharmacist: January 2007).