Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly hailed the efforts of the Egyptian Drug Authority (EDA) on Monday for being designated by the World Health Organisation's (WHO) as 'Maturity Level 3' in producing vaccines. The PM also affirmed President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi's directives to enhance the Egyptian pharmaceutical industry, asserting the importance of maximising the optimal utilisation of cadres and distinguished local capabilities in this field in order to have an effective and integrated national drug control system in accordance with international standards. Furthermore, Madbouly noted that although the medical sector faced major challenges — such as the coronavirus pandemic — the Egyptian market did not witness a shortage in drugs. Moreover, he asserted that Egypt was able to coordinate the manufacture of vaccines to combat the spread of the coronavirus locally. The WHO's assessment of regulatory authorities is based on the 'Global Benchmarking Tool' — an evaluation tool that checks regulatory functions against a set of more than 260 indicators, covering core regulatory functions such as product authorisation, testing of products, market surveillance, and the ability to detect adverse events — to establish their level of maturity and functionality. The Regulation of medical products is extremely important for all healthcare systems and for access to quality vaccines, drugs, and other health products. Apart from ensuring the quality, safety, and efficacy of medical products, regulatory authorities that function well also perform critical functions, such as issuing faster authorisations of products and monitoring public safety after authorisation. Head of the EDA Tamer Essam said that Egypt is the first country in the Middle East to obtain this designation, asserting that this will contribute to attracting more investments to the Egyptian drug market and opening export horizons for Egyptian vaccines in various foreign markets.
