CHAPTER 7COMMITTEE FOR ADVANCED THERAPIES
Article 20Committee for Advanced Therapies
1
A Committee for Advanced Therapies shall be established within the Agency.
2
Save where otherwise provided in this Regulation, Regulation (EC) No 726/2004 shall apply to the Committee for Advanced Therapies.
3
The Executive Director of the Agency shall ensure appropriate coordination between the Committee for Advanced Therapies and the other Committees of the Agency, in particular the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use and the Committee for Orphan Medicinal Products, their working parties and any other scientific advisory groups.
Article 21Composition of the Committee for Advanced Therapies
1
The Committee for Advanced Therapies shall be composed of the following members:
a
five members or co-opted members of the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use from five Member States, with alternates either proposed by their respective Member State or, in the case of co-opted members of the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use, identified by the latter on the advice of the corresponding co-opted member. These five members with their alternates shall be appointed by the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use;
b
one member and one alternate appointed by each Member State whose national competent authority is not represented among the members and alternates appointed by the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use;
c
two members and two alternates appointed by the Commission, on the basis of a public call for expressions of interest and after consulting the European Parliament, in order to represent clinicians;
d
two members and two alternates appointed by the Commission, on the basis of a public call for expressions of interest and after consulting the European Parliament, in order to represent patients’ associations.
The alternates shall represent and vote for the members in their absence.
2
All members of the Committee for Advanced Therapies shall be chosen for their scientific qualification or experience in respect of advanced therapy medicinal products. For the purposes of paragraph 1(b), the Member States shall cooperate, under the coordination of the Executive Director of the Agency, in order to ensure that the final composition of the Committee for Advanced Therapies provides appropriate and balanced coverage of the scientific areas relevant to advanced therapies, including medical devices, tissue engineering, gene therapy, cell therapy, biotechnology, surgery, pharmacovigilance, risk management and ethics.
At least two members and two alternates of the Committee for Advanced Therapies shall have scientific expertise in medical devices.
3
The members of the Committee for Advanced Therapies shall be appointed for a renewable period of three years. At meetings of the Committee for Advanced Therapies, they may be accompanied by experts.
4
The Committee for Advanced Therapies shall elect its Chairman from among its members for a term of three years, renewable once.
5
The names and scientific qualifications of all members shall be made public by the Agency, in particular on the Agency’s website.
Article 22Conflicts of interest
In addition to the requirements laid down in Article 63 of Regulation (EC) No 726/2004, members and alternates of the Committee for Advanced Therapies shall have no financial or other interests in the biotechnology sector and medical device sector that could affect their impartiality. All indirect interests that could relate to these sectors shall be entered in the register referred to in Article 63(2) of Regulation (EC) No 726/2004.
Article 23Tasks of the Committee for Advanced Therapies
The Committee for Advanced Therapies shall have the following tasks:
- (a)
to formulate a draft opinion on the quality, safety and efficacy of an advanced therapy medicinal product for final approval by the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use and to advise the latter on any data generated in the development of such a product;
- (b)
to provide advice, pursuant to Article 17, on whether a product falls within the definition of an advanced therapy medicinal product;
- (c)
at the request of the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use, to advise on any medicinal product which may require, for the evaluation of its quality, safety or efficacy, expertise in one of the scientific areas referred to in Article 21(2);
- (d)
to provide advice on any question related to advanced therapy medicinal products, at the request of the Executive Director of the Agency or the Commission;
- (e)
to assist scientifically in the elaboration of any documents related to the fulfilment of the objectives of this Regulation;
- (f)
at the Commission’s request, to provide scientific expertise and advice for any Community initiative related to the development of innovative medicines and therapies which requires expertise in one of the scientific areas referred to in Article 21(2);
- (g)
to contribute to the scientific advice procedures referred to in Article 16 of this Regulation and in Article 57(1)(n) of Regulation (EC) No 726/2004.