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Fifth Anniversary Celebration of Duke-NUS’ Centre for Regulatory Excellence (CoRE)

In conjunction with the celebration was the graduation of its first cohort form the Graduate Certificate Programme in Pharmaceutical Regulation.

CoRE was set up at Duke-NUS Medical School in 2014, with support from the Ministry of Health (MOH), Health Sciences Authority (HSA) and the Economic Development Board (EDB), to strengthen health product regulatory systems across Asia. Since its launch, CoRE has played an important role in key initiatives for health product regulation in Singapore and the wider region. The centre has also begun to address broader health systems and policy issues in its programmes.

Celebrating the five-year milestone of CoRE, Minister for Health, Singapore, Mr Gan Kim Yong graced the event as its Guest-of-Honour. “Over the past five years, CoRE has grown from strength to strength. Locally, it has worked with the Health Sciences Authority to drive capabilities in the regulation of cell and gene therapies and medical devices. Regionally, the centre supports the APAC Regional Harmonization Steering Committee, and has conducted in-country training for ASEAN member states on pharmacovigilance or post-market drug safety monitoring.”

“Internationally, CoRE is recognized as a centre of excellence for multi-regional clinical trials and new areas such as advanced therapies and biotherapeutics. It has also worked to support the drafting of guidelines for Good Reliance Practice with the World Health Organization.”

“Over the past five years, CoRE has successfully launched the Graduate Certificate Programme in Pharmaceutical Regulation, and expanded health product regulation capacity-building initiatives beyond Singapore to ASEAN and the wider Asia-Pacific.” said Professor John Lim, Duke-NUS’ CoRE’s Executive Director, who is also Policy Core Lead at the SingHealth Duke-NUS Global Health Institute and a Senior Advisor to MOH.

The graduation ceremony celebrated the achievements of 10 students graduating from the Graduate Certificate Programme in Pharmaceutical Regulation. The unique training programme is aimed at equipping working professionals from both public and private sectors with regulatory science expertise.

“Education is one of CoRE’s key strategies to enhance health products regulation and scientific excellence. The Graduate Certificate Programme in Pharmaceutical Regulation fulfils this need to provide knowledge on regulatory science expertise to working professionals in Asia,” said Associate Professor Silke Vogel, Deputy Director of CoRE.

Moving forward, CoRE will strengthen the Graduate Certificate Programme in Pharmaceutical Regulation and introduce programmes in medical devices and medical technology. The centre will also promote thought leadership, scientific excellence and policy innovation for health product regulation and health systems, as well as develop its consultancy capabilities in collaboration with partner organisations. [APBN]