About HMA

The Heads of Medicines Agencies (HMA) is a network of the heads of the National Competent Authorities (NCA) whose organisations are responsible for the regulation of medicinal products for human and veterinary use in the European Economic Area.

The HMA co-operates with the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the European Commission in the operation of the European medicines regulatory network and it is a unique model for cooperation and worksharing on statutory as well as voluntary regulatory activities.

The HMA is coordinated and supervised by a Management Group and it is supported by several Working Groups, covering specific areas of responsibility, and by a Permanent Secretariat.

Main Activities

The HMA:

  • addresses key strategic issues for the network, such as the exchange of information, IT developments and sharing of best practices
  • focuses on the development, co-ordination and consistency of the European medicines regulatory system
  • ensures the most effective and efficient use of resources across the network. This includes developing and overseeing arrangements for work-sharing
  • co-ordinates the mutual recognition (MRP) and decentralised procedures (DCP).

Member agencies support the network by providing high-quality professional and scientific resources to all areas of medicines regulation including centralised, MRP, DCP and national procedures.