EMA Seeks Comments on Medicine Development for Elderly Patients

The European Medicines Agency invited comment on tailoring medicine development to the needs of older patients.

Older patients are the highest users of medicines among Europeans, but drug development rarely addresses challenges common among older patients relating to opening packages, reading instructions or taking the drugs, the agency said.

The EMA paper details how developers can consider these challenges, ranging from design of container closure systems to writing user instructions. EMA said it may expand the paper into guidance depending on the comments it receives.