Bioequivalence and Bioavailability Forum

Dear all,

the EMA recently redesigned its website:

• TLS-connection (https instead of http).
  
• Responsive design (mobile-friendly but IMHO, too large fonts if displayed on desktop).
  
• URLs changed (documents SEO friendly renamed and redirects* in place).
  Example (BE guideline):
  http://www.ema.europa.eu/docs/en_GB/document_library/Scientific_guideline/2010/01/WC500070039.pdf ⇒
  https://www.ema.europa.eu/documents/scientific-guideline/guideline-investigation-bioequivalence-rev1_en.pdf

Unfortunately the statement

“Although the site’s URLs are new, URLs from the previous website will continue to work for every page and document, thanks to one-to-one redirects”

is not true. Some documents are not found…
Example: Questions and Answers on Biosimilar Medicines (October 2008) ⇒ Page no longer exists (HTTP 404). Good luck in searching – is it really gone or does the redirect not work?

I will update the Guideline-collection accordingly; takes time.

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• Professionals at work… First HTTP 301 (Moved Permanently) is sent and then HTTP 302 (Moved Temporarily).
  After the new document is found, HTTP 200 (OK).
  HTTP 302 is superfluous and might confuse search engines if received after HTTP 301. Why not only HTTP 301 or – maybe even better – simply HTTP 303 (See Other)?