Brussels, 31/05/2007 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 31 May, German Health Minister Ulla Schmidt welcomed the approval of a new regulation putting in place centralised marketing authorisation, through the European Medicines Agency in London, of new therapies developed from cell and tissue engineering as one of the major successes of the six-month German presidency. The Council of Ministers had just confirmed its second political agreement on the compromise text, which the Parliament had already approved on 25 April (see EUROPE 9414). The agreement was reached after Spain removed its last reservation over treatments developed in hospitals. The Maltese and Slovakian ministers made a statement on the ban on human embryonic stem cell research in their respective countries. The final version of the text is still to be signed by the presidents of the Parliament and the Council before it comes into force, at the end of July or, at the latest, the start of September, depending on the time needed for the translations. Its effective application will begin in one year, the time for the Agency to recruit experts and to set up an assessment procedure for these absolutely new products, which are in the van of biotechnology and genetic research and could, in some instances, involve the use of micro devices if the therapy is pharmacological or metabolic in nature. With the exception of some very modest cases, these therapies offer a vast and little-explored field of research. Among the rare products already being used in therapy are tissue (skin or cartilage) produced or regenerated to repair a wound or correct a malformation. Other therapies, based on cellular division and/or intra-cellular modification, are already used in the treatment of some cancers. They are also considered to be promising for the treatment of different neuro-degenerative diseases and various rare illnesses. (oj)