South-East Asia Regulatory Network - SEARN

Overview

In 2016, the 11 Member States of WHO South-East Asia Region launched the South-East Asia Regulatory Network (SEARN) to enhance information sharing, collaboration and convergence of medical products (medicines, vaccines, diagnostics, devices) regulatory practices across the Region.

Regulatory authorities in several countries require support for enhancing technical capacity, staff and resources to perform effectively. Even well-resourced authorities are hard-pressed to thoroughly evaluate new products and enforce existing regulations. Therefore, it is envisaged SEARN would be instrumental in guaranteeing access to quality medical products.

WHO is providing the initial secretariat, with the intent that SEARN becomes a self-sustaining inter-country network, managed by the Member States themselves. The SEARN Steering Group (SG) has three permanent members (India, Indonesia, Thailand) and two revolving members. The key guiding principle for SEARN is to take up activities where through collaboration, the National Regulatory Authorities (NRAs) can achieve better results: savings in time, money, resources and speed up their work to provide access to medical products for better health of their populations.