Brussels, 20 Nov: Economic growth and lower healthcare costs are both possible if Europe exploits the opportunities of personalised healthcare, according to a report prepared under the aegis of the Cyprus Presidency of the EU.

We welcome the proposal for a Clinical Trials Regulation released by the European Commission. The Regulation appears to improve the legislation associated with running clinical trials. This will give clinicians and researchers a better framework for developing and testing treatments, to benefit patients across Europe, while maintaining the high standards of patient safety that currently exist in European clinical research. The harmonisation of clinical trials legislation and the streamlining of the application process for starting trials should particularly benefit the set up and running of multi-national trials in Europe.

  http://www. no-cuts-on-research. eu EHA supports European Nobel and Fields Medal prizewinners to prevent the EU research funding for 2014-2020 from being subject to budget cuts.

THE HAGUE – July 18, 2012 – Replacing the current Clinical Trials Directive, the European Commission (EC) adopted a proposal yesterday to regulate medical research in Europe.
It appears that the Commission has taken to heart many of the criticisms voiced by EHA and other stakeholders and is now proposing to reduce red tape through the introduction of a regulation, rather than a directive. This should simplify the application for market authorization of medicines and ensure procedural coherence of the assessment.

AMSTERDAM – June 16, 2012 –The European Hematology Association (EHA), the American Society of Hematology (ASH), and the European Cancer Patient Coalition (ECPC) joined today in issuing a common call to action in an effort to mitigate shortages of hematologic drugs in Europe, the United States and around the world. The collective made the announcement today following the EHA-ASH Joint Symposium at the 17th EHA Congress in Amsterdam which was dedicated to the drug shortage crisis.

Laurent Degos will be the fifth recipient of the Jean Bernard Lifetime Achievement Award which was presented for the first time at the 13th Congress in Copenhagen. This award was established to honor outstanding physicians and scientists for their lifetime contribution to the advancement of hematology.

The EHA Board has selected Professor Jesús San Miguel for the José Carreras Lecture at the 17th Congress in Amsterdam. Jesús San Miguel is Professor of Medicine (Haematology), Head of the Hematology Department at the University Hospital of Salamanca, and Director of the Biomedical Research Institute of Salamanca, Spain. He is an internationally recognized leader in the field of hematology, and specifically in the area of multiple myeloma.

Amsterdam, June 15, 2012. “There is a large potential opportunity for saving lives by early identification of cardiac iron loading in Thalassemia patients”, declares Professor John-Paul Carpenter of the Royal Brompton CMR Unit in London at the 17th Congress of the European Hematology Association in Amsterdam.

Amsterdam, June 15, 2012. At the 17th Congress of the European Hematology Association in Amsterdam Professor Max Topp of the University of Wuerzberg in Germany presents the impressive results with a bispecific antibody for Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia patients.

Amsterdam, June 15, 2012. Dr Micheal Hedenus of the Haematology Unit of the Sundsval Hospital in Sweden will present promising results on a study on a single iron dose for fatigue treatment in iron deficient women at the 17th Congress of the European Hematology Association in Amsterdam.

Amsterdam, June 15, 2012. Dr Alan Ramsay will present findings of a study in patients with Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia that will contribute to the design of immunotherapeutic strategies leading to the killing of cancer cells at the 17th Congress of the European Hematology Association in Amsterdam.

Amsterdam, June 15, 2012. “Hodgkin lymphoma has become one of the most curable malignancies in adults,” was stated by Dr Andreas Engert, Professor of Hematology at the University Hospital of Cologne in Germany. Results of the German Hodgkin Study Group (GHSG) HD 15 trial are presented at the 17th Congress of the European Hematology Association in Amsterdam.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has launched a new Call for Expressions of Interest for Drug Safety Studies with a view to drawing up a list of potential contractors who may be invited to reply to specific invitations to tender in the future.

An article in the New England Journal of Medicine in January entitled ‘Selling Bone Marrow-Flynn v. Holder by Glen Cohen¹ reports on a disturbing development in the USA. Cohen reviews a recent judgment by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit which held that a ban on selling ‘bone marrow,’ that is part of the National Organ Transplant Act (NOTA) of 1984,² does not encompass ‘peripheral blood stem cells’. The judgment, according to Cohen, is based on the statutory interpretation of NOTA, not on the plaintiff’s more radical claim that the prohibition on selling bone marrow violates the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

The current revision of two European Directives that are crucial to successful research into blood-related diseases must ensure the safety of patients and enhance their access to vitally-important treatment.