24 October, 2023 (PAHO/WHO) – PAHO, through its department of Innovation, Access to Medicines and Health Technologies (IMT), participated in the TAIEX INTPA Regional Workshop on EU-Caribbean Regulatory Systems by the European Union Delegations in Guyana and Barbados in collaboration with the Government of Guyana and CARPHA in Georgetown, Guyana on 11-12 October 2023.
The workshop aimed to strengthen the European Union and Latin America and the Caribbean (EU-LAC) partnership on health resilience and vaccine production, in line with the proposal put forth in June 2022 by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Additionally, it supports the “Pharmaceutical Equity for Global Public Health” initiative launched by the Prime Minister of Barbados, the President of the Republic of Guyana, and the President of Rwanda in November 2022.
It saw the participation of CARPHA Caribbean Regulatory System, national regulators, and Ministry of Health officials from several Caribbean countries: Belize, Barbados, Dominica, Haiti, Jamaica, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Guyana.
PAHO/IMT was invited to present on PAHO’s Regional support for regulation of medicines, vaccines, and other health products.
It was centred on the strengthening of regulatory systems and enabling capacities to generate an ecosystem conducive to production.
WHO/RSS was also present and provided a presentation on Building regional networks for pharmaceutical regulation in Africa and promoting reliance. It also included an overview of the WHO GBT and on the WHO Listed Authorities Several.
Additionally, regulators from EU member states and EMA shared their experience in strengthening regulatory systems in Europe and collaborative work done with other countries particularly in Africa.
Overall, the workshop served to share insight of the current state of national regulatory systems and the support participating countries require in enhancing their systems.
