13/03/2006 (Agence Europe) - At the opening of their new offices in Brussels on Wednesday 8 March, the Presidents of EUCOMED, Drago Cerchiari (CEO of Sorin), and EDMA, Jean-François de Lavison (Vice-President of Biomérieux), stressed the importance to the European economy of the health sector. With Georgette Lalis, the European Commission's director of pharmaceutical policy, listening, they welcomed last November's presentation of a new regulation on innovative therapies (gene, cellular or tissue therapies) which require a centralised marketing authorisation procedure through the European Medicines Agency. They pointed out, however, that a large number of these products can neither be classed as medicines nor medical device. The two organisations, which represent medical device manufacturers (catheters, syringes, heart valves etc.) and diagnostic products, consider that their products should not be assessed in the same way as medicines. The future composition of the EMEA committee, specially set up for innovative therapies, is expected to come out in their favour.