Danish Medicines Agency aces European benchmark survey
The Danish Medicines Agency has just scored 4.5 of a possible 5 in the common-European survey known as the Benchmarking of European Medicines Agencies (BEMA). ”It's a really good result that will benefit all of us and may help raise the standard throughout Europe,” said the Danish health minister.
Since the Danish Medicines Agency was re-established in October 2015, the agency has been supported by a political goal of becoming one of Europe's best in class. Judging from the score that has just been awarded in the common-European Benchmarking of European Medicines Agencies (BEMA), it seems that we are well on the way to reach this goal. With a score of 4.5 out of a possible 5, the agency has improved its rating by more than half a point from 3.9 at the latest BEMA survey conducted in 2014.
"A really good result that will benefit all of us"
"It's a really good result that will benefit all of us – citizens and patients, life science companies and the Danish Medicines Agency itself. A strong medicines agency is important to ensure that the medicine available on the market is safe, effective and available and to ensure that new medicine is developed for those in need. It is also encouraging because the benchmarking means that the medicines agencies in Europe can learn from the best and raise the overall standard in Europe compared to the rest of the world," said health minister Ellen Trane Nørby.
”The healthcare area is one of the government's top priorities, as most recently highlighted in the Growth Plan for Life Science. It is encouraging to see that our increased efforts have borne fruit already. The BEMA top score given to the Danish Medicines Agency is a sign that Denmark possesses good assets in an area that is developing rapidly, for example with the use of big data in the development of new medicine, precision medicine tailored to the individual citizen and a new framework for more efficient clinical trials", said the health minister.
Benchmarking in 12 areas
The benchmarking programme covers a total of 12 areas ranging from strategy and leadership, risk management and information technology to core disciplines within the agency's activities, including authorisation of medicines, inspection of pharmaceutical companies and pharmacovigilance.
Three foreign accessors headed the benchmarking of the Danish Medicines Agency. The accessors highlight the agency's concentrated efforts within strategy, management and user and customer orientation as factors contributing to the good result, and the fact that the agency has worked systematically with quality management and optimisation of work processes through the Lean work method.