The third meeting of the Heads of Regulatory National Medicine Authorities of the member countries was held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on December 17-18, at the initiative of the Secretariat of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). The two-day meeting provided information on the current status of regulation in the field of medicines in the Organization’s member countries, challenges, and harmonization strategies. During event were discussed the achievements made since the last 2nd meeting of the Islamic countries that are members of the Organization, held in the Republic of Turkey in 2022. Then, a World Health Organization expert provided detailed information on the prospects for harmonizing the regulation in the field of medicines with international standards. At the meeting, the head of the Saudi Arabia Regulatory Authority (SFDA) presented a report on “Enhancing Regulatory Harmonization through Global Partnership, Biotechnology Regulation in the Countries of Islamic Cooperation”, Reports of the Arab Republic of Egypt, the Republic of Turkey and the State of Qatar on the subject of Access to affordable and Quality Medicines and Vaccines were heard. Then, Brunei and Pakistan reported on their experiences with the WHO comparative assessment tools (Global Benchmarking Tool).
The delegation, represented by the Deputy of the General Director for Science and Innovation of the Analytical Expertise Center, as well as the Head of the Quality Management Department, presented the “Experience on measuring regulatory Excellence, Performance indicators, framework and Metrics” presentation and provided detailed information on the measures and targets implemented by the Center in the recent period. The delegation’s speech was listened to with interest, relevant questions were asked by the member countries and was wished success for the measures planned to be implemented in the next two years.
