Most participants were convinced that these new technologies bring great advantages to the pharmaceutical industry.

Those speakers who successfully implemented alternative tests pointed to their different experiences in the U.S. and Europe. It was dramatically shown how much more time and costs were involved in the introduction of rapid methods in Europe in comparison to the U.S. The delegates agreed that this issue of time and cost is a general disadvantage for the European pharmaceutical industry. It was also recognised that the new EP chapter on alternative methods could be a move forward in the right direction.

In the course of a workshop which was lead by Paul Newby, GSK, and Peter Ball, Pall, the participants tried to collect individual opinions to get a better idea on what pharmaceutical companies in Europe plan to do concerning rapid microbiology.

Due to the animated discussions during this workshop the ECA decided to take this survey a step forward and to invite all ECA members and everyone in the pharmaceutical industry who shares an interest in rapid microbiology to take part in an internet survey.

The internet questions in electronic form are the same as those that were discussed during the masterclass.

By filling in the questionnaire you will help ECA to decide on further actions to support our members from industry as well as regulatory agencies.

The internet survey will be open until April 30, 2006. The results of this survey and the resultant ECA activities will be published in an ECA newsletter.

Filling in the questionnaire will greatly assist in defining a European Voice for the successful implementation of rapid microbiology and I would ask you please to take the time and trouble to do so.

Click here to read the questionnaire.

Thank you very much for taking the time!

Best Wishes,

Mike Edgington
Director of Regulatory Affairs – European Compliance Academy