children’s medicines in Europe?

New European legislation has the potential to have an enormous impact on how paediatric medicines are studied and used N ew European Union (EU) paedia-tric regulations to encourage more research on children’s medicines became law on 26 January 2007.1 The main proposals are as follows. First, there will be incentives to encourage the pharmaceutical industry to test products for use in children. Secondly, the European Agency for the Evaluation of Medicinal Products (EMEA) will host an expert paediatric committee to oversee and assess paediatric investigation plans for developing medicines for children. Thirdly, a European clinical trials network will be set up to foster collaboration on paediatric studies throughout the EU. Fourthly, medicines licensed for paedia-tric use should be sold with a special label indicating that fact. This legislation has the potential to have an enormous impact on how pae-diatric medicines, both old and new, are studied and used. Is this good news for Europe’s 140 million children