Singapore and South Korea agree to cooperate on Good Manufacturing Practice

At a joint summit on Saturday, South Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Singapore’s Health Science Authority agreeing to collaborate on achieving Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) in the pharmaceutical sector.

The agreement came during the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and Republic of Korea’s (ROK) commemorative summit in Busan to celebrate 30 years of relations between the two sides.

This memorandum of understanding aims to forge closer ties between the two countries in terms of GMP regulations and both agreed to exchange information on inspections. They also agreed to hold joint workshops, share knowledge and experiences on GMP, and share information of unqualified medicines and recalled products, as a well as manufacturing sites and inspections.

The two countries also plan in the future to conclude the GMP Mutual Recognition Agreement, which will help Korean pharmaceutical companies smoothly advance into ASEAN members.

Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety said: ‘‘We expect that the latest MOU will help Korean drugs reach ASEAN, and help us secure foreign information about harmful medicines quickly and take a preemptive measure for safety management’’, adding that ‘‘The Ministry will keep expanding cooperation with major trade partners to support Korean pharmaceutical and biotech firms’ entry into overseas markets.”

The ASEAN pharmaceutical market was estimated to be worth $25.9 billion in 2018, according to the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety. Korea’s drug export to ASEAN has grown to 10.4% in the past five years, which shows the potential for further growth, the Ministry said.

 Conor Kavanagh