The International Pharmaceutical Regulators Forum (IPRF) and International Generic Drug Regulators Programme (IGDRP) have agreed to consolidate their work into a joint initiative that is expected to be operational in January 2018.

According to a summary of the 5th meeting of the IGDRP in Ottawa in June, the IPRF management committee and the IGDRP steering committee expressed support for the consolidation of the IPRF and IGDRP initiatives in order to best respond to the complex issues and challenges facing regulatory authorities and organizations.

Consolidation of these two regulatory collaboratives is expected to enable a shared vision for information exchange and regulatory cooperation, maximize synergies and avoid duplicative efforts, create a regulatory hub for pharmaceuticals that covers all medicinal products, enabling closer linkages with initiatives to simplify the numerous forms of international regulatory collaborations and improve governance for the management committees and the technical working groups.

The consolidated management committee aims to have its first face-to-face meeting in June 2018.

"Given the impending consolidation of IPRF with IGDRP, a revised joint strategic vision will be developed for the consolidated entity in the near future," IPRF said.

In addition, the International Council for Harmonisation (ICH) Assembly approved a proposal from the IPRF management committee for the ICH Secretariat to provide support services to IPRF starting on 1 January 2018.

"The Secretariat support services will cover the needs of the future IPRF and IGDRP consolidated entity," the group added.

The next meeting of the IPRF management committee will be held on 12-13 November 2017 in Geneva, Switzerland.

IGDRP

IPRF