He further added, "We are honoured to have Dr Amy Khor, Minister of State for Health and Manpower in Singapore, speaking at the event as well as speakers from top-level regulatory authorities in several Asian countries and leading experts in the International Conference of Harmonisation process."

Among the key topics being covered at the conference are issues of global significance, including how regulators and industry can work together to enable faster patient access to safe and better medicine, ensuring viability of global supply chains, the importance of post-market and active surveillance, and combating the problem of counterfeit health products.

Post-market surveillance, which is a growing discipline among regulators, industry and healthcare professionals, is also a key area that is being discussed at the conference. Recent high profile cases relating to drug safety and withdrawal of blockbuster drugs, including Vioxx and Avandia, has led to extensive discussion over placing greater emphasis in this domain.

Associate professor John Lim, CEO, has, while speaking about post-market surveillance, said that, "Globally, more emphasis is being placed on post-market surveillance. This is not only due to the strain on expertise and resources to keep on building up pre-market assessment capability, but more significantly, because not every major adverse event can be averted by pre-market studies and information."

"To strengthen post market surveillance, regulators and industry should harness the power of technology to further enhance active monitoring of drug safety. In this respect, Singapore's small population size and the presence of robust health IT systems have proven advantageous," added Assistant Professor Lim.