PER Committee Admits Czech Republic To Scheme

Having considered and examined the application of the Czech registrationauthority concerning its pharmaceutical registration system, the permanent committee of the Scheme for the Mutual Recognition of Evaluation Reports on Pharmaceutical Products (PER Scheme) has agreed to the participation of the Czech authority into the Scheme, effective January 1, 1998.

At a meeting of the PER committee earlier this month, held at the offices of the South African Department of Health and chaired by SA's Professor Antoine van Gelder, the operation of the Scheme overall was reviewed, and it was considered to be still extremely valuable by the participating authorities of the non-European Union countries.

More than 100 requests for evaluation reports were made in 1996, and over 600 in the first nine months of 1997. According to a PER statement, the figure for this year is particularly impressive, given that the introduction of the entralized and mutual recognition procedures between EU member states and the European Economic Area has inevitably reduced the numbers.