Miami, March 17, 2025. The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), in collaboration with the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA), organized a two-day workshop on “Strengthening National and Supranational Regulatory Systems in the Caribbean” in Miami, Florida, USA. The main objective of this workshop was to strengthen supranational and national regulatory systems in the Caribbean for increased access to safe, effective, and quality-assured medicines and health technologies and to facilitate regional production capacities.
As endorsed by the 47th Council of Human and Social Development-Health (COHSOD) Meeting, a high-level working group from the Ministries of Health was convened and served as a Steering Committee to address transforming the Caribbean Regulatory System (CRS) into a more efficient regional regulatory body Present at the workshop were members representing the 19 CARICOM member states and associate member states of Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago. It also saw the participation of observers from the Gates Foundation and the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS).
The first day of the workshop participants engaged in sharing national perspectives on increasing regulatory maturity for access to health technologies and local production capacities, advancing National Regulatory Systems through supranational collaborations and regional partnerships. Invited representatives of the European Medicines Agency, Lithuania’s State Medicines Control Agency the African Medicines Regulatory Harmonization Authority Programme, the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority and the Gates Foundation made presentations and participated in panel discussions to share their own experiences of working within regional regulatory bodies.
On the second day of the workshop the Steering Committee discussed recommendations for leveraging the CRS for Regional Excellence as part of the 47th Council of Human and Social Development-Health (COHSOD) mandate and charting the future of the CRS, as a regulatory body for the Caribbean Region.
PAHO IMT remains dedicated to providing technical cooperation to CARICOM member states, supporting both national regulatory system strengthening and supranational initiatives that foster regulatory advancement and maturity across the Caribbean subregion.
