Mexico, El Salvador join IMDRF as affiliate members

At its annual meeting March 11-15, the International Medical Device Regulators Forum (IMDRF) accepted submissions from Mexico and El Salvador’s national regulatory authorities to join the forum as affiliate members. The two countries join Chile and Cuba, which were admitted as affiliates in 2023. Brazil is a full member of the forum, and Argentina is an official observer.

The harmonization objectives of the IMDRF, a group of regulators who work on promoting convergence, align neatly with regional convergence efforts in Latin America, which have progressed faster for devices than for medicines.

In a statement about the IMDRF meeting, the Pan American Health Organization lauded the new memberships, saying it has long encouraged Latin American and Caribbean agencies to become active in the forum. PAHO representatives also presented at the Washington, DC conference. In its summary of the meeting, IMDRF said that the PAHO officials “described specific premarket reliance models,” while industry representatives from the region “highlighted their experiences using these models.” The four-day conference drew about 400 in-person attendees and twice that many online, according to IMDRF. RAPS.org