JAKARTA, Jan 15 — Indonesia’s Food and Drug Authority (BPOM) has formalised cooperation with Singapore’s Health Sciences Authority (HSA) in the regulation of pharmaceuticals and health products, aimed at strengthening internationally standardised oversight of medicines, vaccines and other health products.
The cooperation covers information exchange and the sharing of best practices to improve regulatory processes and decision making, as well as enhancement to procedures for clinical trial approvals, according to Antara News Agency.
A Memorandum of Understanding was signed by BPOM Head Taruna Ikrar and HSA Chief Executive Officer Raymond Chua at the BPOM office here on Thursday.
The cooperation also covers joint assessments of pharmaceutical and health products, arrangements for conducting clinical trials in both countries, and capacity-building initiatives such as workshops, training programmes and staff exchanges.
Both authorities will also jointly participate in international regulatory programmes and scientific initiatives, while pursuing strategic efforts to integrate artificial intelligence into pharmaceutical regulatory oversight.
Taruna said the partnership would be mutually beneficial, noting that both BPOM and HSA were the only two regulatory bodies in South East Asia to hold the World Health Organisation-Listed Authorities (WLA).
“I believe that if we collaborate and grow stronger together, we can strengthen our regulatory systems, and enhance our reputation at the global level,” he said.
Meanwhile Chua said the cooperation could help position Asean as preferred destination for the pharmaceutical and health products industry, alongside the United States and the European Union. — Bernama