European Parliament vote on the Clinical Trials Regulation

02/04/2014

TheReport of MEP Ms. Glenis Willmott on the Clinical Trials Regulation (CTR) has been voted yesterday: the European Parliament voted in favour of it with 594 votes (only 17 against and 13 abstentions). SIOPE and the whole paediatric oncology community thank the Clinical Trials Regulation Rapporteur, MEP Ms. Glenis Willmott, for all her essential support in improving this piece of legislation.

More than 15,000 children that every year are diagnosed with cancer and, for some of them, participating in a clinical trial can be the only hope of survival. Whilst huge steps forward have been taken, and more children are surviving cancer, still too often Europe lacks suitable treatments for children and teenagers.

Since its creation, SIOPE has worked very hard to make sure that their needs and rights were taken in due consideration in this new piece of legislation. Although still not perfect from the perspective of paediatric oncologists, the newClinical Trials Regulation is a good step towards reversing the negative impact of the former Clinical Trials Directive on the conduct of paediatric clinical trials in Europe. Throughout the whole revision process of the former Directive, SIOPE successfully approached several EU policy makers, including SIOPE's long-lasting supporter MEP Ms Glenis Willmott, rallying their support to our suggested amendments to the Regulation. This demonstrates SIOPE’s capacity to fruitfully contribute to the amelioration of children’s cancer treatment both in practice and through effective advocacy.

The specificities of children with cancer always have to be protected.

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