‘Whole-of-Governments’ Approach to Illicit Medical Products

FDA and the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development are launching an initiative to encourage the wide-scale adoption of a “whole-of-governments” approach to combating illicit medical products. A joint announcement says the initiative started with a 5/24 non-public meeting that focused on a successful whole-of-governments case study of Operation Lascar, under which FDA and the UK have conducted five international enforcement operations since 2017.

During Operation Lascar, U.S. and UK partners identified some regulatory gaps that make a whole-of-governments approach more challenging, the notice says. Those gaps are to be one of the topics at a 7/6 discussion. The announcement says that meeting’s agenda will also cover ways to broaden the coalition and potential prioritization and technological challenges.

The two non-public meetings are to be followed by a 9/15-9/16 public symposium on the whole-of-governments approach to illicit medical products.