Increasingly, drug development is a global endeavor. It requires international collaboration to ensure that consistent standards are adopted and adhered to by all drug makers and regulatory authorities, regardless of country of origin or destination.
I am pleased to have been in China recently, when the China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA) submitted its membership application to the International Council for Harmonisation of Technical Requirements for Pharmaceuticals for Human Use (also known as the International Council for Harmonisation or ICH). As part of a team of FDA officials whom CFDA invited to share regulatory advancements, we discussed how modernizing regulatory review systems can promote public health.
ICH, first created in 1990 by regulatory agencies and industry associations from the United States, Europe, and Japan, was established to facilitate international collaboration, and has been successful in standardizing and elevating drug development practices throughout the world. ICH’s mission helps to increase patient access to safe, effective, and high quality pharmaceuticals, and to ensure that pharmaceuticals are developed and registered efficiently.
