More than 130 participants showed up to the IFPMA-IPASA co-organized event convened from the 27-28 November 2016 at the International Convention Centre (ICC) in Cape Town, South Africa prior to the 17th pre-ICDRA Conference titled “Patients Are Waiting: How Regulators Collectively Make a Difference”. This event was divided into two panel discussions. The first panel was on ‘ Lifecycle management: Improving post-approval processes to ensure availability of medicines and vaccines for patients’ with moderator Dr Lynette Terblanche (Director, Regulatory Affairs, MSD) and speakers: Dr Ivana Knezevic (Group Lead, Norms and Standards for Biologicals, WHO), Dr Anders Vinther (Chief Quality Officer, Sanofi Pasteur), and Dr Dominic M. Kariuki (Deputy Director, PPB-Kenya). The panellists of this technical session shared their perspectives with the audience about potential solutions and the future of lifecycle management.

The second panel was web streamed live with numerous scores of participants online; unprecedented for an IFPMA-IPASA regulatory event. The discussion was on ‘#patientsRwaiting: why regulatory system strengthening matters?’ and moderated by Ms Gerry Elsdon (Stop TB Ambassador and TV presenter for South Africa). Speakers included Dr Samvel Azatyan (Group Lead, Regulatory Networks and Harmonization, WHO), Dr Luther Gwaza (Consultant Regulatory Officer, Medicines Control Authority of Zimbabwe/World Bank Consultant), Dr Jeanette Lotter (Director, MCC South Africa), Mr Kawaldip Sehmi (CEO, IAPO), and Dr Thomas Schreitmüller (F. Hoffmann-La Roche/on behalf of FIFARMA). This discussion was very dynamic and co-organizers received many encouraging comments from the audience for such relevant event to always be linked to pre-ICDRA.

Overall, for both panel discussions, the room was fully packed and level of engagement with key regulatory stakeholders quite high with as many as 7 senior regulatory WHO officials attending. For full details on the event, the complete video capture, and Q&A session, please consult our event web page under resources: http://www.ifpma.org/events-2/icdra2016/

If you are also active on twitter: please consult the hashtag #patientsRwaiting to monitor how the event was covered.