Regulatory streamlining can improve access to treatments

Loren Becker, manager of the Global Health Technologies Coalition's (GHTC) Global Health Regulatory Team, discusses the new East African Community's (EAC) Medicines Regulatory Harmonization initiative, launched at the end of March in Arusha, Tanzania, in this post in GHTC's "Breakthroughs" blog. The program aims "to streamline and harmonize regulatory processes to reduce the time and cost of delivering new products" to improve patient access to necessary therapies, and includes "regulators from six agencies in five East African countries -- Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda -- as well as Zanzibar," she writes. Becker adds, "Over the next several years, support for these efforts -- in the form of technical assistance, training opportunities, and political backing -- from the FDA and other experienced regulatory authorities will be crucial" (Lufkin, 4/11).