Brussels, 28/11/2013 (Agence Europe) - The European Medicines Agency (EMA) is working on a project assessing the benefits and risks of vaccines for health. Its objective is to set up a framework across Europe which will give better overall view. The project, named ADVANCE (Accelerated Development of Vaccine Benefit-risk Collaboration in Europe), will be developed over five years with the support of the Innovative Medicine Initiative (IMI), and the active collaboration of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and pharmaceutical companies. Vaccines undergo rigorous safety testing but the consequences of the HIN1 influenza pandemic have shown the weaknesses at different levels as regards vaccine management, notes the EMA - which wants to remedy this. (IL/transl.fl)