Conclusion
In the future regulatory environment, there will be increased cooperation between the EMA and the FDA, and this is set to
provide numerous benefits. At present, various projects focusing on different areas of drug regulation are underway to generate
specific recommendations on how the cooperative measures will work in practice. A further development has been an exchange
staff programme — the FDA has had a permanent representative in the EMA office in London (UK) since 2009 and the EMA adopted
a similar approach earlier this year by placing a representative at the FDA headquarters in Maryland (USA).
Despite the progress being made, however, the agencies will need to ensure that they gain the support of both the pharma industry
and the public. Only in this way will the true benefits of collaborative regulatory measures be realised.
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