Russia’s application to join the Pharmaceutical Inspection Co-operation Scheme (PIC/S) has been frozen. This is reported by FV with reference to Vladislav Shestakov, Director of the State Institute of Medicines and Good Practices (FBI “GILS i NP”).
“We were used to the fact that pharmaceuticals and healthcare had always been considered as sectors outside politics and outside religion, but unfortunately, the modern world in its development has shown the opposite side, its double standards. This spring we received a notification from the PIC/S committee about its decision to freeze our membership application,” Shestakov said during the VII All-Russian GMP Conference with international participation.
PIC/S positions itself as an organization “not subject to political influence, not accepting discrimination, serving the principles of universal equality,” Vladislav Shestakov pointed out.
Russia has been actively working to join PIC/S since 2017, the publication notes. In 2019, a preliminary application was submitted and approved. In the late 2020, the organization accepted a full application from the Russian Federation. Later it became known that in April 2021, PIC/S will appoint an auditor for Russia’s application to join the Cooperation Scheme.
PIC/S is an international organization uniting 54 foreign GMP inspectorates. Among members of PIC/S, there are representatives of the FDA, EMA, WHO, etc. The mission of the organization is to lead the international development, implementation and maintenance of harmonised Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) standards and quality systems of inspectorates in the field of medicinal products, as well as to strengthen trust and cooperation between inspectorates of different countries.