The International Coalition of Medicines Regulatory Authorities (ICMRA) and the World Health Organization (WHO) have committed to working together to ensure that patients have access to safe and effective health products against COVID-19 as early as possible, while the existing rigorous scientific standards for the evaluation and safety monitoring of treatments and vaccines are maintained at all times.

In their joint statement, international medicines regulators and WHO reiterates that therapeutics and vaccines against COVID-19 can only be rapidly approved if applications are supported by robust and sound scientific evidence that allows medicine regulators to conclude on a positive benefit-risk balance for these products.

ICMRA and WHO also pledge to take concrete actions to ensure equitable access to safe, effective, and quality-assured medicines for the treatment or prevention of COVID-19 around the world.

In view of a large number of COVID-19 vaccines and treatments under development and their potentially imminent roll-out, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Coalition of Medicines Regulatory Authorities (ICMRA) have joined forces to uphold and promote the most rigorous, evidence-based regulatory practices by supporting the alignment of regulatory processes across all countries.

As in other areas of the pandemic response, multilateral cooperation between regulatory authorities will be critical in ensuring there is a level playing field, that COVID-19 vaccines and medicines are safe, effective, and quality-assured, and that all countries may benefit from such products equitably and at the same time. This joint statement commits each organization to a series of actions to make this happen.