On 5 December 2017, the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) published a Post-implementation Review of the Human Medicines Regulations 2012 (the Review). The Review assesses the effectiveness and impact of the Human Medicines Regulation 2012 (the 2012 Regulations), which were introduced in the UK with a view to implementing a series of EU directives and to consolidate UK medicines legislation. The Review also sets out recommendations about how to address shortcomings identified in the 2012 Regulations.
Based on the Review, the 2012 Regulations are to be retained and it seems that no major overhaul of these Regulations is to be expected. However, there are likely to be several pieces of guidance issued by the MHRA in the near future in relation to those aspects of the 2012 Regulations that have proved most controversial (e.g., on cross-border prescriptions and wholesale dealing). It is hoped that these will provide welcome clarification. In addition, measures intended to ease the burden for manufacturers of generic medicinal products in relation to the maintenance and distribution of Risk Management Plans and Risk Minimisation Measures may be introduced shortly. The suggestion made by the MHRA in the Review is that work-sharing should be “encouraged” as between marketing authorisation holders, although some respondents to the consultation have suggested that work-sharing should be mandatory. It remains to be seen how, and in what form, the MHRA chooses to introduce any such new measures.
Our advisory, discussing this further, can be found here.