Sponsors should follow one of the two options below to submit an application for orphan designation:

• Submit directly an application to EMA, through the IRIS system:

Pre-submission meetings are not mandatory and sponsors are welcome to send an application for orphan drug designation without notice. However, EMA would appreciate it if sponsors could send the application a few days before any of the published submission deadlines available on the EMA website to allow more time for the validation process and the possibility to intervene in case of technical problems.

• Request a pre-submission meeting/teleconference:

EMA strongly encourages sponsors to request a pre-submission meeting with the Agency prior to filing an application. Pre-submission meetings usually take place via teleconference, unless the sponsor has a strong preference to come to EMA in person.

If a sponsor feels they could benefit from a preliminary discussion before the submission of an orphan drug application, they can request a pre-submission meeting/teleconference at least two months prior to their planned submission date via the IRIS portal. This should allow enough time for the organisation and any amendment of the application as recommended by EMA.

Sponsors should create an initial draft application for orphan designation before creating the application for the pre-submission discussion. These are two separate submissions to be made in the IRIS system. The draft submission for orphan designation should be populated with the relevant data and documents, but not submitted, at least one week before the pre-submission meeting date.

Pre-submission meetings are useful since the evaluation process has a fixed duration of 90 days and cannot be lengthened to accommodate for the lack of data or other omissions in the application. Experience has shown that they have a positive impact on the success rate of the applications.