NEW YORK, United States (CMC) — The Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) Monday signed a technical cooperation agreement with the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) aimed at improving regulatory harmonisation and convergence in the region of the Americas including the Caribbean.

The primary goal of the agreement, signed in the margins of the 79th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), is to advance the work of the Pan American Network for Drug Regulatory Harmonisation (PANDRH).

PAHO said that through this agreement, CEPI will support its efforts as the technical secretariat for PANDRH to support pandemic preparedness in countries.

“This agreement supports PAHO’s work to strengthen health security in the Americas.  Functional regulatory systems are particularly crucial to achieving equitable access to quality-assured and safe medical products during pandemics and other public health emergencies, as well as to promote regional innovation and production,” said PAHO Director Jarbas Barbosa.

“We are eager to strengthen our partnership with CEPI through this agreement, following a cooperation framework signed in 2023 for the benefit of people across the Americas,” he added.

PANDRH was established in 1999 to help strengthen regulatory functions and systems in countries of the Americas with the aim of achieving regulatory convergence and harmonization in the region.

Its mission includes addressing existing disparities, developing core competencies to support good regulatory practices and science, and developing, approving, and implementing common proposals for the regulation of health technologies across the region.

“CEPI is delighted to strengthen our partnership with PAHO and PANDRH to support regulatory harmonisation in the Americas and defend against emerging infectious diseases across the region,” said CEPI’s Chief Executive Officer, Dr Richard Hatchett.

“Such harmonisation of regulatory processes is crucial as it fosters a common understanding among regional regulators, maximises limited regulatory resources, helps establish standards that are tailored to specific regional needs and, ultimately, can help accelerate the process of getting safe and effective diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccines, to those who need them most,” he added.

The new agreement follows recommendations made during the recent XI PANDRH conference which also marked the network’s 25th anniversary. The conference called for a new strategic plan to adapt to emerging regional challenges and to improve, among others, regulatory preparedness for health emergencies.

CEPI was launched in 2017 as an innovative partnership between public, private, philanthropic and civil organisations. Its mission is to accelerate the development of vaccines and other biologic countermeasures against epidemic and pandemic disease threats and enable equitable access to them.