The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) yesterday said it has officially joined the International Coalition of Medicines Regulatory Authorities (ICMRA) under the name “Taiwan Food and Drug Administration, Chinese Taipei.”
The FDA has become an associate member of the ICMRA, after the coalition approved its application, filed last year, at a recent meeting, it said in a statement.
Founded in 2013, the ICMRA is an informal group of leaders of medicine regulators that provides strategic directions for enhanced collaboration and approaches to jointly address common challenges, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, it says on its Web site.
Photo: CNA
The ICMRA consists of 24 full members, including the USFDA and the Chinese National Medical Products Administration, and 15 associate members, including Taiwan.
The WHO is listed as an observer to the group.
The FDA applied to join the organization to learn from “other medicine regulatory authorities’ strategies in responding to current issues of concern,” the statement said.
As an associate member, the FDA would participate in all ICMRA working groups and initiatives, enabling it to learn about trends in global regulatory issues and exchange information on health policy with other regulatory agencies, it said.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs congratulated the FDA on becoming part of the ICMRA community.
The agency’s inclusion in the ICMRA indicates that Taiwan’s laws and regulations on food and drugs have been recognized globally, and that the government’s years-long strategy of pushing for Taiwan’s meaningful participation in the international community is on the right path, the ministry said in a separate statement.
Taiwan has been shut out of the WHO and other UN-affiliated entities because it is not a member of the UN, and efforts to take part as an observer have failed over the past few years because of China’s opposition.
In other news, the FDA yesterday said that the outcome of a specialist meeting yesterday afternoon to investigate the presence of banned meat leanness enhancing additive cimbuterol in a Taiwan Sugar Corp (Taisugar) pork product would be disclosed next month.
FDA Director-General Wu Shou-mei (吳秀梅) said that the Office of Food Safety would compile the outcomes of FDA meetings on the butchering-to-marketing process of the Taisugar product, and another meeting is to be held by the Ministry of Agriculture today focusing on livestock farms and slaughterhouses.
The specialist meeting was attended by Office of Food Safety Director Hsu Fu (許輔) and 13 other experts in the fields of food safety, toxicology, analytical chemistry and veterinary medicine, Wu said.
The outcomes would be released by the Cabinet next month, she said, without elaborating.
The issue surfaced when the Taichung Health Bureau on Feb. 2 reported that a sample of Taisugar’s “Pork Boston Butt, Sliced” product tested positive for traces of cimbuterol at 0.002 parts per million.
The presence of cimbuterol was confirmed in a test by the FDA on Feb. 6, but multiple tests on 91 pork products, including 12 from the same batch as the contaminated pork, had tested negative for cimbuterol as of Tuesday.
“China is preparing to invade Taiwan,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an exclusive interview with British media channel Sky News for a special report titled, “Is Taiwan ready for a Chinese invasion?” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said today in a statement. The 25-minute-long special report by Helen Ann-Smith released yesterday saw Sky News travel to Penghu, Taoyuan and Taipei to discuss the possibility of a Chinese invasion and how Taiwan is preparing for an attack. The film observed emergency response drills, interviewed baseball fans at the Taipei Dome on their views of US President
ECONOMIC BENEFITS: The imports from Belize would replace those from Honduras, whose shrimp exports have dropped 67 percent since cutting ties in 2023 Maintaining ties with Taiwan has economic benefits, Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials said yesterday, citing the approval of frozen whiteleg shrimp imports from Belize by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as an example. The FDA on Wednesday approved the tariff-free imports from Belize after the whiteleg shrimp passed the Systematic Inspection of Imported Food, which would continue to boost mutual trade, the ministry said. Taiwan’s annual consumption of whiteleg shrimps stands at 30,000 tonnes, far exceeding domestic production, the ministry said. Taiwan used to fill the gap by importing shrimps from Honduras, but purchases slumped after Tegucigalpa severed diplomatic ties with Taiwan
The Executive Yuan yesterday approved a southwestern extension of the Sanying MRT Line from New Taipei to Bade District (八德) in Taoyuan, with a goal of starting construction by late 2026. The 4.03-kilometer extension, featuring three new stations, will run from the current terminus at Yingtao Fude Station (LB12) in New Taipei City to Dannan Station (LB14), where it will connect with Taoyuan’s Green Line, New Taipei City Metro Corp said in a statement. This extension will follow the completion of core Sanying Line, a 14.29-kilometer medium-capacity system linking Tucheng (土城), Sansia (三峽)
CARGO LOSS: About 50 containers at the stern of the ‘Ever Lunar’ cargo ship went overboard, prompting the temporary closure of the port and disrupting operations Evergreen Marine Corp, Taiwan’s largest container shipper, yesterday said that all crew members aboard the Ever Lunar (長月) were safe after dozens of containers fell overboard off the coast of Peru the previous day. The incident occurred at 9:40am on Friday as the Ever Lunar was anchored and waiting to enter the Port of Callao when it suddenly experienced severe rolling, Evergreen said in a statement. The rolling, which caused the containers to fall, might have been caused by factors including a tsunami triggered by an earthquake in Russia, poor winter sea conditions in South America or a sudden influx of waves,
RSS