At the end of 2010, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) published a road map that laid out a ‘strategic vision for the operation of the European Medicines Agency’ from 2011 to 2015.¹ According to this document, there are three strategic areas where much of their effort will be spent in the coming years: addressing public health needs, facilitating access to medicines, and optimizing the safe and rational use of medicines. As a follow-up to the road map, the EMA has published a document explaining how it will go about achieving its goals in each of the strategic areas mentioned above.² Interestingly, there is the candid recognition that we are living through a difficult economic situation, and this will have an impact on the availability of resources and the achievement of the stated goals. Below, I discuss a couple of aspects that most caught my eye.