The Irish Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA) today announced the introduction of an expedited review process for human health research related to COVID-19.
The Irish Minister for Health also announced the setting up of a dedicated COVID-19 National Research Ethics Committee (NREC-COVID-19).
Applications for clinical trials of human medicines or clinical investigations of medical devices will be given priority and an expedited review by HPRA. The NREC-COVID-19 will review applications concurrently with the regulatory review processes and will endeavour to facilitate an expedited ethical review (see: COVID-19 Related Human Research – Expedited Regulatory and Ethical Review).
This fast-track process is likely to be of interest to the very many global pharma, biotech and device manufacturers already based in Ireland but it will also make Ireland a more favourable jurisdiction in the EU for COVID-19 related human health research.