Pavel Balabanov is a clinical neurologist who before joining the EMA worked as a consultant neurologist at the Clinic of Neurology, University Hospital – Plovdiv, Bulgaria. He has a PhD in Neurology and hold a position of senior teaching professor of neurology at the Department of Neurology, Medical University of Plovdiv. Currently he leads the office for Therapies for Neurological and Psychiatric Disorders at the EMA.
In his career at the EMA, he has been involved in the development of the regulatory guidelines for development of new drugs in the field of Multiple sclerosis, Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). In the spirit of enhancing stakeholder collaboration he was responsible for a number of scientific workshops at the EMA dealing with:
• The future of the development of new drugs in MS
• Issues in the development of therapies in Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy
• Clinical Trial Readiness in Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA)
• Registries in MS and their role in drug evaluation.
He has significant experience in process development and implementation as the lead of task force introducing improved operating procedures in the management of new marketing authorization applications. Previously at the EMA he has worked as a Product lead for Neurology medicinal products, and was a member of the Scientific Advice section of the Agency, providing advice to applicants, aimed at improving their drug development programmes and making them adherent to the current regulatory and scientific requirements.