The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is expected to finally complete the digitalization initiatives of its information systems (IS) by the third quarter of the year.
The Private Sector Advisory Council (PSAC) health-care sector group made the announcement during its meeting with President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. last Wednesday.
The group reported that FDA’s overall digitalization rate of its 10 IS is now 72.5 percent.
The FDA is targeting to complete the process, which will include its electronic certificate of the product registration information system, by August.
Once the said its IS has been digitized, FDA will proceed the automation of its other systems, including its new chemical entity renewal, certificate of listing of the identical drug product (CLIDP), and post-marketing surveillance.
During the meeting, Marcos also instructed PSAC to boost the country’s local medicine production.
“Let’s maximize the local production. The initial reason why this came up is the supply problems that we encountered during the lockdowns so we need to be prepared. We should be able to produce the local supply of essential medicines,” Marcos said.
In response, the Department of Health (DOH) and FDA said they would coordinate with the private sector to determine the medicines that can be produced locally.
Other matters, which were discussed, include increasing the production capacity of local pharmaceutical manufacturers, identifying new medical technologies that can be used for geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas, and the study of the feasibility of establishing remote diagnostics centers.
Image credits: Bloomberg