Directive 2009/53/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 June 2009 amending Directive 2001/82/EC and Directive 2001/83/EC, as regards variations to the terms of marketing authorisations for medicinal products4, requires the Commission to adopt appropriate arrangements for the examination of variations to the terms of marketing authorisations granted in accordance with Directives 2001/82/EC and 2001/83/EC not yet covered by Commission Regulation (EC) No 1234/20085. It is therefore appropriate to extend the scope of Regulation (EC) No 1234/2008. The variations of all marketing authorisations granted in the EU in accordance with the acquis should be subject to the procedures laid down in Regulation (EC) No 1234/2008.

The definition of variation should be clarified and updated in particular to take into consideration the provisions of Regulation (EU) No 1235/2010 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 December 2010 amending, as regards pharmacovigilance of medicinal products for human use, Regulation (EC) No 726/2004 laying down Community procedures for the authorisation and supervision of medicinal products for human and veterinary use and establishing a European Medicines Agency, and Regulation (EC) No 1394/2007 on advanced therapy medicinal products6, and the provisions of Directive 2010/84/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 December 2010 amending, as regards pharmacovigilance, Directive 2001/83/EC on the Community code relating to medicinal products for human use7.

For reasons of consistency and with a view to reducing the administrative burden, variations to purely national marketing authorisations should be processed in accordance with the same principles that apply to variations of marketing authorisations granted under the mutual recognition procedure and the decentralised procedure. However, the possibilities for grouping variations should be adapted to the specific characteristics of purely national marketing authorisations.

It should be possible to process variations to purely national marketing authorisations in accordance with the worksharing procedure under certain conditions. Where the use of the worksharing procedure has lead to the harmonisation of a section of the summary of product characteristics, it should not be possible for the holder to later undermine the harmonisation achieved by submitting applications for variations to the section thus harmonised in some of the concerned Member States only.

Grouping of several variations in a single submission is possible in some cases. It should be clarified that, where several variations are grouped, the procedure for the handling of the variations in the group and the rules for the implementation of those variations should be those of the variation of the highest grade. In order to facilitate the acceptance of complex groupings by the relevant authorities, it should be possible to extend the assessment period.

The worksharing procedure is intended to avoid duplication of work. Accordingly, it should be possible for competent authorities to process under the same procedure variations to purely national marketing authorisations, variations to marketing authorisations granted under the mutual recognition or decentralised procedure, and variations to centralised marketing authorisations.

The procedure for the variation of human influenza vaccines should be streamlined. Competent authorities should still be able to start the assessment in the absence of clinical and stability data and take a decision if no additional information is considered necessary. However, if clinical and stability data is requested, the competent authorities should not be required to take a decision until the assessment thereof has been finalised.

For medicinal products authorised under Regulation (EC) No 726/2004, the refusal of the European Medicines Agency to accept a variation should terminate the procedure. Likewise, a Commission decision should not be required regarding variations that do not amend the terms of the decision granting the marketing authorisation.

The European Medicines Agency has the expertise to assess the need for urgent safety restrictions regarding medicinal products authorised under the centralised procedure. Marketing authorisation holders of medicinal products authorised under Regulation (EC) No 726/2004 should therefore inform the Agency if they consider that urgent safety measures are necessary.

A proliferation of variation procedures leading to frequent changes in the terms of the decision granting the marketing authorisation for centralised marketing authorisations has been identified. Changes that are critical for public health should be reflected in the decision granting the marketing authorisation promptly. However, other changes should be reflected in the decision granting the marketing authorisation according to timelines that ensure reasonable periodic updates of the decision granting the marketing authorisations while facilitating the identification of variations with the greatest impact on public health.

The principles governing the implementation of variations should be adjusted while keeping the principle that it should be possible for the marketing authorisation holder to implement certain variations prior to the relevant marketing authorisation being changed.

The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Standing Committee on Medicinal Products for Human Use and the Standing Committee on Veterinary Medicinal Products,