The Gujarat Food and Drug Control Administration (FDCA) and the Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) of UK have entered into a strategic partnership to focus on cross training activities under which the drug officials from the FDCA will be fine-tuned and updated on the latest methods of inspection and other changing trends.

The collaboration, a first of its kind with the MHRA, will also focus on conducting activities that will help in better understanding of the requirements of UK drug regulatory body through detailed and well analysed ideas exchange programme to keep the regulatory officials abreast of the changing global regulatory requirements. Interestingly, Gujarat FDCA already has a strong collaborative working relation with the US FDA, that was entered three years back on the same lines,i.e. to focus on training programme.

The collaboration that was mutually agreed upon in the early week of December was attended by a seven-member delegation from the MHRA and the UK Trade and Investment (UKTI), headed by Gerald Heddell director of the inspection, MHRA.    Gujarat FDCA commissioner Dr H G Koshia, who is the brainchild behind the project, stressed that considering the changing regulatory set-up in the UK, it is utmost important to get acquainted with their requirement and needs to train the regulators from the state to keep them updated.

He stated, “We are extremely pleased with the kind of response we got from our interaction with the MHRA officials which showed that they are also very keen to establish a stronger tie up with us which is a first of its kind with any state drug regulatory body in the country. Our efforts will be on combining ideas and applying them to develop our inspection techniques to achieve our goal of being best regulators in the country through this training programme.”

As per the data supplied by the MHRA, almost 25 per cent of the total drugs that are running in the UK are from India, which shows on why they are equally interested in focusing on maintaining close collaborative relation with Indian regulators. Interestingly, out of the 25 per cent, a lions share of the exports to the UK is from Gujarat alone, “Working with MHRA will be a great learning experience for us especially since, they are considered as the second most stringent regulatory board after the US FDA. We can use this opportunity to upgrade our standard and strengthen our  regulatory acumen as per the international criterion to help us achieve the ultimate goal of being the best regulatory body,” Dr Koshia said.