Guido Rasi: a day in the life of the European Medicines Agency's executive director

摘要

My interview with European Medicines Agency executive director Guido Rasi gets off to an ominous start.An urgent matter has cropped up and Professor Rasi is now running late after having to deal with a morning of unscheduled meetings.It is 26 October and France has just announced it is suspending sales of Novartis's Agrippal flu vaccine as a precautionary measure, after potential quality defects were found in batches of the drug.The EMA is busy preparing a statement on the matter; the agency's head of communications informs me. I half expect my interview to be cancelled but Prof Rasi manages to squeeze me into his increasingly hectic day.Prof Rasi took over the helm of the EMA in November 201 I. Since then, as well as dealing with the typical responsibilities entailed in running an agency that regulates medicines for over 500 million citizens in the EU, he has been busy with the colossal job of implementing the new pharmacovigilance legislation