European Commission expands role of research chief

European Commission President-elect Ursula von der Leyen unveiled her new team of commissioners-designate this week, including the addition of Stella Kyriakides, a medical psychologist from Cyprus, to lead the health portfolio.

 

Moving forward, Kyriakides’s leadership will be crucial in the implementation of the EU Medical Devices Regulation (MDR), which has a looming implementation deadline next May, and the In Vitro Diagnostics Regulation (IVDR), which has an implementation deadline in May 2022.

 

Vytenis Andriukaitis, the previous European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, said in June that the May 2020 deadline is “realistic and achievable.”

 

And in her letter to Kyriakides on Tuesday, von der Leyen wrote: “I want you to focus on the effective implementation of the new regulatory framework on medical devices to protect patients and ensure it addresses new and emerging challenges.”