Portuguese Authority of Medicines and Health Products will be relocated to Porto in January 2019
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INFARMED (Portuguese Authority of Medicines and Health Products), will be relocated to Porto as of January 2019.
After disappointing news regarding EMA - Amsterdam was the chosen city to host the European Medicines Agency- the "good news" is that the Portuguese Government decided to transfer Infarmed's Head Office to the city of Porto.
Mayor Rui Moreira announced at a Press Conference this afternoon at the City Hall foyer that he received a phone call early in the morning from Prime Minister, António Costa, and Health Minister Adalberto Campos Fernandes, informing him that the Government had decided to reassign the Portuguese Authority of Medicines and Health Products - Infarmed, to Porto and inquiring whether the municipality of Porto was able to support such decision.
Mayor Rui Moreira was timely in his response, stating that councilman Ricardo Valente, in-charge of the EMA dossier, "shall immediately focus on this issue so that the relocation process is done swiftly".
"There is already good work done in this area", Mayor Rui Moreira stated, "we were a bit behind in the EMA competition but still we managed to build a strong application in a period of three months".
"Now it is up to the Portuguese Authority of Medicines and Health Products to assess their needs and select what location suits them best".
For sure "Porto complies with the technical conditions to host institutions of this type", the Mayor enthuses.
Rui Moreira further clarified there were no negotiations to bringing Infarmed to Porto, "I was informed this morning by the Prime Minister".
"This is not a moral victory. I was not satisfied about EMA, but second place would still be last" and the decision of the Portuguese Government to relocate Infarmed in Porto is not but the "acknowledgment of Porto's competence".
The Mayor thanked the Government for this decision, which demonstrates once again that "we are able to demonstrate we are not satisfied regarding centralistic models of governance, we are also capable to express satisfaction at the efforts made to ensure measures of this nature".