Independent thesis Advanced level (degree of Master (Two Years)), 20 credits / 30 HE credits
Introduction: On 24 January, 2014 Serbia was approved opening negotiations on accession into the European Union (EU). The European Commission is responsible for launching assistance programmes to support preparatory procedures for the candidate countries; one of those programmes is the Instrument for pre-accession Assistance (IPA) programme. The aim of the IPA programme is to build contacts and relationships between the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and Serbia’s Medicines and Medical Devices Agency (ALIMS), for future collaboration in the EMA activities and its relationship with the Member States of EU.
Aim: The aim is to describe regulatory activities of ALIMS on human medicines, since the country is not yet a Member State of the EU and to put this into relation with Sweden, a Member State of the EU, which may promote new activities to be introduced in ALIMS’s regulatory work.
Method: This is a descriptive comparative literature report of institutions working with pharmaceutical regulatory activities.
Findings: The Serbian Law on Medicines and Medical Devices, established in 2010 suggests that the activities of ALIMS are generally in accordance with the EU standards and guidelines. Since Serbia is not yet a member of the EU, the pharmaceutical regulatory system for granting centralized authorization or marketing authorization based on mutual recognition is not yet possible. However, the Law of Medicines and Medical Devices states that exceptions can be made and ALIMS can issue authorization of centrally authorized medicines if it has reasons related to protection of public health.
Conclusions: ALIMS has a well developed regulatory authority thanks to international collaboration and a desire to become an EU Member State.
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