A new database made its debut this week, with little U.S. fanfare.

EMEA Executive Director Thomas Lönngren said of the EudraPharm resource: “Once fully developed, this database will be the reference point for independent information about all medicines available to Europeans, no matter whether these medicines have been authorised at EU or national level.”

The database combines data from product characteristics, package inserts and labels. It currently gives access to information only in English, but information in the other official EU languages will be available at a later phase. The home page of the database has a long list of greetings, all of which (except the one in English) are greyed out.

The database is undoubtedly massive and was assuredly difficult to assemble across so many jurisdictions. The contents and search functions of the database are limited and the data from a search is too skeletal to be of much use. And it has no information that would be useful to any ordinary patient, physician, nurse or person engaged in industry-sponsored research. So its mission is unclear.