The Chief Executive Officer of the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA), Mrs. Delese Darko, has presented a lecture to students, alumni and faculty members of the Regulatory Affairs Department, of the Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America (USA).

By this, Mrs. Darko becomes the first head of a Regulatory Authority or Agency around the world to be invited as a guest lecturer of the University’s Adhoc Lecture on Emerging Regulatory Trends (ALERT) Lecture Series.

The ALERT program is to strengthen the University’s regulatory affairs program by helping students, alumni and faculty to stay up-to-date with cutting edge issues and trends impacting the industry. It also affords the University the opportunity to streamline education and professional development through an additional avenue of industry academic collaboration.

Delivering the lecture remotely (on-line) from Accra on the theme, “Regulating Clinical Trials and Licensing Medicines and Medical Devices in Africa – An Experience from Ghana”, Mrs. Darko stressed that it is highly important for the patient, pharmaceutical manufacturer, clinical trial scientists, medical practitioners, nurses, healthcare technician, health insurance personnel, pharmacist and the general public to be fully aware of their rights and responsibilities. Mrs. Darko, stressed that the full knowledge of the rights and responsibilities of the various stakeholders would ensure the safety, effectiveness, quality, accessibility, affordability, regulations and registration of medical products that end up in their cabinets, shelves and other locations within their environments.

She further revealed to participants at the lecture of the ongoing efforts of the African Union Development Agency (AUDA) formerly New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) to establish a single regulatory Authority on the continent, the African Medicines Agency (AMA), to regulate the safety, efficacy and quality of medicinal products on the African market in a timely manner and without the duplication of efforts by the various African National Regulatory Authorities (NRAs).

The online lecture series has the potential to open doors for Ghanaian students in the Health and Allied Sciences to be enrolled in the online Master’s Degree or Graduate certificate programs at the prestigious Northeastern University Regulatory Affairs programme.