EU Abadies's exit from CHMP: EMA rejected French agency salary request

摘要

Eric Abadie's resignation as chairman of the European Medicines Agency's key human drugs evaluation committee, the CHMRcame after the EMA's rejected a request from the French medicines regulator, Afssaps, to pay Dr Abadie a salary. CHMP members do not traditionally receive a salary. Dr Abadie offered to step down from the CHMP in early April and the EMA's executive director; Guido Rasi, accepted the resignation with immediate effect. Dr Abadie was also scientific advisor at the French regulatory agency, Afssaps. However, in December; the agency's head, Dominique Maraninchi, announced that he would no longer be using scientific advisors and that Dr Abadie's contract at Afssaps would therefore not be renewed. A number of reforms aimed at strengthening Afssaps and increasing transparency in the wake of the Mediator drug affair were announced last year The French agency then requested that the EMA keep Dr Abadie on as CHMP chairman and pay him a salary, an Afssaps spokesperson said3. However; the EMA said this would not be possible. It said it could only pay salaries for its own staff, and not, for example, national experts seconded to it by national authorities."The EMA has always paid travel, accommodation and daily allowance for committee members, but there has never been any discussion of the agency 'paying' or compensating national authorities beyond this. It is understood to be part of the contribution to the work of the agency agreed by member states when they adopted the regulation establishing the committees in their current format," the EMA said.