European News In Brief

EU human tissue regulation: DG Enterprise will likely release an independent human tissue product draft directive in June 2003, arousing European industry concern over the possibility of two separate circulating directives. Eucomed's public policy focus group has responded favorably to DG Sanco's proposed directive setting out quality requirements for processing human tissues and cells, set for approval before 2004. Enterprise's initiative also was well received by industry, since manufacturers are expected to be "treated on the same basis as tissue banks." The Sanco directive, founded on Article 152 under the Amsterdam Treaty, is an EU Health Policy initiative. The DG Enterprise proposal, meanwhile, aims to create an EU-wide regulatory framework for marketing tissue products...