Image credit- National Medical Products Administration, China
Singapore's Health Sciences Authority (HSA) and China's National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to renew their commitment in health products regulatory collaboration, so as to support faster access to new and innovative health products for patients and healthcare systems in both countries.
The renewed MoU expands the scope of regulatory cooperation into new emerging areas such as cell, tissue and gene therapy products, and strengthens collaboration to explore building facilitative regulatory pathways, pilot innovative schemes, capacity building and staff exchanges.
The expanded partnership is expected to strengthen regulatory convergence and enhance opportunities for industry engagement, potentially enabling more efficient development, evaluation and market access pathways for the new innovative therapeutics and medical technologies.
Both agencies will also continue to collaborate on the exchange of regulations, information and best practices, and potential joint efforts to combat counterfeit, falsified and substandard health products, including collaboration on inspections of manufacturing facilities and testing.
Building on the 2021 agreement, the renewed MoU expands the scope of collaboration to encompass cell, tissue and gene therapy products, a rapidly growing area of medical innovation. This timely regulatory co-operation will help strengthen regulatory capabilities and responsiveness in both countries, while maintaining robust standards of safety, quality and efficacy.
