"The products of advanced medicine are a great hope for the treatment of such diseases as cancer, neurological diseases, heart conditions or skin conditions". Miroslav Mikoláik, MEP for the People’s Party, spoke of the goals and aims of the proposed regulations that the EU Parliament is going to address today at its plenary meeting in Strasbourg. The "aim is to standardise the legislation for advanced therapies that use gene- and cell-based approaches to treat diseases and disorders of the human body". Mikoláik’s report was approved by the Environmental Committee and will be submitted to the Assembly today. "The main goal of these regulations specifies the Slovakian MEP is to pull down the barriers that still exist in the European market and ease the patients’ access to treatments", while a note from Parliament specifies that "the new legislation will not touch areas that have to do with ethics, for instance embryo cells or germ cell therapy". The so-called advanced therapies "include gene therapy, adult stem cells and tissue engineering". The first one "is about replacing the genes responsible for rare diseases with healthy genes. This therapy is also useful for treating such diseases as muscular dystrophy and haemophilia". (continued)
