A Regulatory Town Hall Meeting focused on the challenges and opportunities to expand innovation, improve product quality assurance and patient access to medicines relies on global regulatory harmonization and collaborative approaches in establishing effective policies. This paradigm shift is predicated on transformation that only a future-looking workforce can deliver.

The pharmaceutical industry is advancing through an unprecedented innovative transformation, driven by the development of new product modalities, the emergence of innovative technologies, the evolution of alternative and adaptive regulatory frameworks, and the expeditious approaches introduced and leveraged in response to the COVID-19 pandemic experience.

The Regulatory Town Hall will cultivate a compelling discussion among several panelists on the merits, opportunities and challenges associated with the introduction of innovative technologies, the use of modelling, artificial intelligence, and digital platforms that are shaping the future of pharmaceutical development and commercialization. The key messages from this event will provide a template for the attributes and qualities necessary to enlist and engage a skilled and competent workforce capable of adapting to the fluid demands and expectations of patients and health care providers globally.

The panel will include six representatives from industry and regulatory authorities who will address the following evolving topics:

1. Mutual reliance: How can the industry and regulators leverage the existing frameworks and initiatives, such as the Pharmaceutical Inspection Co-operation Scheme (PIC/S), the Mutual Recognition Agreement (MRA), and the International Council for Harmonisation of Technical Requirements for Pharmaceuticals for Human Use (ICH), to enhance the mutual recognition and reliance of inspections, assessments, and standards across different jurisdictions?
2. Information sharing: How can the industry and regulators enhance the information sharing and communication between and among themselves, as well as with other stakeholders, such as patients, health care professionals, and the public, using the available and emerging digital platforms and tools?
3. Modelling: How can the industry and regulators increase the global acceptability and use of modelling and simulation techniques, such as mechanistic models, physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) models to support the design, development, and evaluation of medicines and vaccines?
4. AI algorithms: How can the industry and regulators ensure the quality, reliability, and validity of the artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms and systems that are increasingly used in the pharmaceutical sector, such as for drug discovery, clinical trials, pharmacovigilance, and manufacturing?
5. Inspection harmonization: How can the industry and regulators harmonize the implementation and interpretation of the PIC/S Guide to Good Manufacturing Practice for Medicinal Products (GMP), especially the Annex 1 on the manufacture of sterile medicinal products?
6. Supply chain management: How can the industry and regulators improve the resilience, transparency, and security of the global pharmaceutical supply chain, especially in the post-pandemic context, where the demand and supply of medicines and vaccines are subject to unprecedented fluctuations and disruptions?
7. Structuring the data: How to address the terminology when submitting data to different regulatory agencies? How to harmonize the data? What kind of standard should be used?

We invite all the participants to share their questions on these topics and engage in a constructive and productive dialogue on charting the direction for innovation in the industry to embrace the future that is now!

Yasuhiro Kishioka PhD, PMDA

Appearances