Reflections on Travel to Europe – Part One

https://www.fda.gov/news-events/fda-voices/reflections-travel-europe-part-one?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery Recently I had the privilege of official travel to the U.K. and European Union (EU) with our extraordinary global affairs team. We visited with The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency and representatives of the U.K. medical device, digital and pharmaceutical industries in London and then moved on to Oxford for an exchange and update on the conduct of clinical trials and mutual concerns about cybersecurity. We then traveled to Brussels, where we visited the U.S. Mission to the EU and met with the European Commission, European Food Safety Authority, and representatives of European medical products and food industries. Finally, we spent time in Amsterdam meeting with the European Medicines Agency. While there were important exchanges relating to all of these commodities regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the common theme of both our previous trip to Singapore and India and this excursion was the value of international collaboration and exchange of perspectives. We all want safe and nutritious food, safe and effective medical products, and freedom from the death and disability caused by tobacco products, and we are all increasingly dependent on our complex, interdigitated supply chains. We deal with the same fundamental issues as the regulators and public health officials we met with, and increasingly, the changes in our computing and data infrastructure are enabling us to share and exchange information much more quickly across the global expanse.