At the 2nd International Forum of Pharmaceutical Inspectorates (IFPI), held on November 24–25 at the Marriott Hotel Downtown Abu Dhabi, global regulatory authorities and pharmaceutical industry leaders reaffirmed a shared commitment to ensuring safe, effective medicines worldwide. Co-chaired for the second year by the Russian Federation, the Forum drew representatives from more than 50 countries. With medicines often manufactured in one country, packaged in another, and prescribed in a third, the Forum stressed that shared standards and transparent dialogue remain essential to global patient safety.

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The program opened with high-level plenary sessions attended by heads of representatives of the regulatory authorities and experts from Russia, the UAE, France, Serbia, India, Singapore, Indonesia, Myanmar, the US, Cuba, Chile, Jordan, Egypt, Turkey, Armenia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Ecuador, and others, and African nations participating in the African Medicines Regulatory Harmonization (AMRH) initiative. Subsequent sessions focused on GMP regulatory challenges, the harmonization of pharmaceutical production requirements, and approaches to mutual recognition of GMP inspection results. Delegates also examined inspection mechanisms for biological products and strategies to improve access to modern medicines across different health systems.

Shared mission: patient safety above all: “Cooperation between regulatory authorities increases the availability of high-quality, safe, and effective medicines while improving transparency,” said Vladislav Shestakov, Co-Chair of the Organizing Committee and Director of the State Institute of Drugs and Good Practices (SID & GP). “Quality is not merely about inspections and reports it begins with the mindset of its creators. Like classical music, achieving a pure sound requires professional instruments and fine-tuning.” For the second consecutive year, Russia served as Co-Chair of the Forum’s Organizing Committee.

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The representative of the UAE, Dr. Shaikha Al Mazrouei, Director of Reference National Laboratory, Drug Department, Emirates Drug Establishment, stressed that countries that strive to ensure the modern level of quality of medicines and their accessibility to patients, as well as to develop their own R&D-based pharmaceutical industry, are convinced of the efforts to deepen the harmonization process. “Today, we are discussing how regulatory harmonization can help ensure that medicines are available to patients in our countries on faster and safer pathways. And, of course, the GxP practice system is the most important part, the core of the entire process. Closer integration into global regulatory processes and the development of digital healthcare are the tools that ensure the success of this movement. In this regard, the Forum provides an important chance for the entire GMP community to gather and discuss the challenges that we face and how we can help each other overcome them.”

Dmitry Galkin, Director of the Department for the Development of the Pharmaceutical and Medical Industry at the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation and Head of the Russian GMP Inspectorate, noted that the global regulatory environment is undergoing rapid transformation. With innovations from gene therapy to antibody-based drugs emerging at unprecedented speed, regulatory systems must adapt continuously. “A new architecture of global pharmaceutical regulation is taking shape, where mutual recognition of inspections, data exchange, and comparable quality standards become key elements,” he said.