ECJ blow to Commission decision on marketing of anti-obesity drugs

The ECJ has annuled the Commission decision to withdraw national marketing authorisations of medicinal products for human use which contain, inter alia, certain amphetamine-like anorectic agents used in anti-obesity drugs.

The Commission opinions, dated 1999, were based on the opinion by the Committee for Proprietary Medicinal Products (CPMP) which had found that those substances lacked efficacy according to the new scientific criterion of long-term efficacy of anti-obesity drugs.

The sixteen drug companies that had been operating under the national marketing authorisation, brought the case to the ECJ.

The ECJ has ruled that the Commission lacked the competence to adopt the decisions at issue and therefore they should be annulled.

 ECJ Press Release

 Case C-39/03 P