Europe’s drug regulator wins court backing for data transparency policy

Clare Dyer, BMJ 2020;368:m302

The European Union’s highest court has decisively upheld the European Medicines Agency’s right to publish clinical trial data from drug companies’ applications to market their products in the EU.

In two keenly awaited judgments, the European Court of Justice has comprehensively rejected appeals by two companies against rulings in 2018 by the General Court of the European Union upholding the European Medicines Agency’s open data policy.12

In 2010 the agency adopted a policy of making available all documents underlying a successful drug licence application from January 2014, setting aside its previous presumption of confidentiality. But the move was resisted by pharmaceutical companies, which mounted legal challenges, arguing that their commercial confidentiality was at risk.