To Our Readers

DIA Together: Collaboration and Innovation Drive Progress

s we begin another new year, we are reminded that we work in a time of remarkable collaboration throughout the healthcare system. Today, few, if any, products are exclusively sourced, manufactured, reviewed, approved, or used in a single country.

Few individuals, organizations, or even nations are equipped to single-handedly navigate the global landscape of supply chains, reimbursement, and regulation.

China, one of the world’s economic powerhouses, was admitted as a regulatory member of the International Council for Harmonisation (ICH) in 2017 and has implemented significant regulatory reforms to begin to more closely align with global standards. Joint scientific and HTA assessments are becoming more common throughout the EU, as many European payer organizations have joined forces with the EMA to implement new value-based payment models. In the US, the FDA and National Institutes of Health collaborated with the TransCelerate BioPharma collective to develop a common protocol template to harmonize clinical trials and expedite regulatory reviews to deliver new products to patients more quickly.

DIA has always emphasized the great value of working together; collaboration has been a hallmark of our organization since its inception more than 50 years ago. We continuously seek to engage new partners to help us advance our mission. DIA is now an Authorized Training Partner of ICH, and DIA learning and training courses are now aligned with ICH goals and recommendations. DIA has also established partnerships with Korea and Singapore, leading to two important DIA events that illustrate both the reach and importance of DIA’s global, neutral, collaborative forum: the 2017 Joint International Conference on Clinical Trials in Seoul last November, together with the Korea National Enterprise for Clinical Trials (KoNECT) and, later this month in Singapore, a two-day conference on Accelerating Access to Innovative Products – Improving Responses to Pandemic Diseases, with the Duke-NUS Centre of Regulatory Excellence.

It’s worth repeating: We work in a time of remarkable collaboration throughout the healthcare system. While technological advances such as digital and wireless communication have helped expand this collaboration, they are only tools. The real change has come from YOU and YOUR increased collaboration that has ushered in an era of global knowledge exchange and shared expertise, an era DIA’s Founders envisioned at the outset. Come join us–let’s work together to make 2018 another great year of collaboration, innovation, and progress in healthcare!