NMRAS Adopt Riyadh Declaration to Promote Collaboration

The Third meeting of National Medicine Regulatory Authorities (NMRAs) of Member States of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, (OIC) concluded today, Wednesday, 18 December 2024 in Riyadh. The meeting adopted Riyadh Declaration and Action Plan 2025-2027.

The Declaration emphasized the necessity of strengthening cooperation and networking among the NMRAs as well as adopting strategies and initiating actions that would promote, as mutually agreed, relevant technology transfer, exchange of technical know-how and human capacity building for development and manufacturing of pharmaceutical by the domestic industry of the OIC Member States. The Declaration called upon NMRAs in OIC Member States to cooperate in order to create an effective quality assurance and control systems, aiming to prevent risks to public health and to enhance the capabilities of Member States to control and monitor the imported products. The Declaration emphasized the need for NMRAs in OIC Member States to be more digitalized by using effective and safe AI systems and develop partnerships with technology providers to promote and use AI-based medical innovations and pursue technology-related transformation to modernize the NMRAs systems and their capabilities.

The Action Plan 2025-2027 would focus on promoting collaboration among OIC NMRAs for advancing medicine regulation and R&D ecosystems. The Action Plan includes five objectives: (i) to strengthening cooperation and networking among the NMRAs in OIC Member States, (ii) to promote access to affordable and quality medicines and vaccines, (iii) to developing R&D ecosystem resources, (iv) to ensure adequate and sustainable funding system for NMRAs, and (v) to advancing NMRAs maturity and achieve good regulatory practices/benchmarking tool (GBT). The meeting called on NMRAs in OIC Member States to form working groups to develop the necessary mechanisms for implementation of the Action Plan 2025-2027 to ensure the achievement of its objectives.

During the two days of the meeting, the participants made presentations and held discussions within five Working Sessions. The first Working session on the topic: Strategies for Enhancing Collaboration and Regulatory Harmonization among OIC NMRAs: Current State, Challenges and Opportunities, the presenters were from SESRIC, COMSTECH and the Saudi Food and Drug Authority. The Second Working Session on the topic: Biotech Regulation and localization within OIC, five Member States made presentations: Saudi Arabia, Turkiye, Jordan, Oman and Morocco. The Third Working Session on the topic: Developing R&D Ecosystem, five Member States made presentations: Gabon, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Senegal and United Arab Emirates. The Fourth Working Session on the topic: Access to Affordable and Quality Medicines and Vaccines, the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) made presentation as well as three Member States, Tajikistan, Turkiye and Mozambique. The Fifth Working Session on the topic NMRA maturity and GBT status, four Member States made presentations, Brunei Darussalam, Pakistan, Azerbaijan and Uganda as well as a presentation from a representative from Saudi Food and Drug Authority.