International Conference of Drug Regulatory Authorities [ICDRA]

The International Conference of Drug Regulatory Authorities (ICRDA), an international WHO conference with the largest gathering of medicines regulators from across the world, brings together over 500 delegates from 94 countries with an aim to strengthen global collaboration and increase patient safety and access to medicines and health technologies.

ICDRA is a week-long event, held every two years. This year’s theme, Smart Safety Surveillance, will discuss a wide range of priority areas to enable regulators to look at ways they can better collaborate across countries and regions to approve and register new health products more rapidly, thereby ensuring faster access for patients. It places patients at the centre, and underscores the responsibility of regulators to maintain constant vigilance - from product development to end use. It will examine how to deal with substandard and falsified products, which are a worldwide problem; and the vital role of regulators in combatting antimicrobial resistance, and during public health emergencies of, for example, Ebola or other disease outbreaks.

The meeting of regulators begins on Wednesday, 5 September. On 3-4 September, representatives from pharmaceutical companies and industry organizations, nongovernmental organizations and donors will meet on issues such as safety surveillance, smooth transfer of regulatory information, and special regulatory procedures for public health emergencies.

Where: Clayton Hotel, Burlington Road, Dublin 4, Ireland

When: 3-7 September 2018