25/06/2002 (Agence Europe) - When voting, last week, on the opinion tabled by the British Labour MEP Imelda Read (directive amending the Community code for medicines for human usage) and Umberto Scapagnini (amending the regulation setting up the European Medicines Agency), the EP's Committee on Industry did not adopt amendments that could substantially have altered the draft reports by Ms. Grossetete and Muller for the Committee on the Environment, competent as to substance. Worth noting, however, that even the Committee on Industry refused to reduce to eight years the period for the protection of clinical data, as desired by manufacturers of generic products, who thus retain little chance of succeeding in the votes in the Committee on the Environment or in plenary.