New guidance to ensure availability of veterinary medicines
The guidance is aimed at companies that develop, manufacture and distribute veterinary medicines.
New guidance to ensure the availability of veterinary medicines during the COVID-19 pandemic have been produced by the European Commission, European Medicines Agency and the Coordination Group for Mutual Recognition and Decentralised Procedure-Veterinary.
The joint guidance, which comes in the form of a question and answer document, is aimed at companies that develop, manufacture and distribute veterinary medicines to address some of the constraints posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
It sets out areas where regulatory rules for veterinary medicines should be applied with greater flexibility to mitigate the risk of supply disruptions caused by the pandemic. The areas covered include:
- marketing authorisation procedures;
- safety monitoring;
- and inspections of manufacturing facilities and good manufacturing practice (GMP) for veterinary medicines.
Companies marketing medicines for small pets exempt from authorisation must submit their annual return to the Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD) by 30 November 2026.
