Regulators, it seems, like their vacation as much as the rest of us do.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA), the EU's centralized regulatory agency, announced today that it would be closing its offices for the rest of the year beginning on Monday, 24 December 2012.

They are scheduled to reopen on Thursday, 3 January 2013-a 10-day break in all.

EMA said it would maintain its emergency telephone number at +44 (0)(20 7523 760, but that its staff will otherwise be unavailable. The agency's public calendar shows no scheduled meetings or committee hearings after 13 December 2012.