Jordan Times
Friday, August 27, 2004
USFDA to conduct field study
in Kingdom
By Reem Halasa
AMMAN — A delegation from the US Food and Drugs Association (USFDA) will begin a
weeklong visit to the Kingdom on Sunday, Salah Mawajdeh, director of the Jordan
Food and Drugs association (JFDA), said on Thursday.
The delegation consists of USFDA experts and the director of the Global Health
Affairs at the Department of Health and Human Resources and other officials.
The JFDA and USFDA have held a series of videoconferences for the past six
months in attempt to improve the services of the JFDA, since establishment in
2003, Mawajdeh told The Jordan Times.
“This visit is the first field assessment for the USFDA, which will allow them
to see how we operate firsthand,” he added.
During videoconferences, the counterparts set priorities that the JFDA needed to
focus on. These include inspections of drug factories, monitoring possible side
effect of drugs once dispensed in the market, surveillance of food and drugs
laboratories and monitoring clinical research institutions.
The delegation will visit clinical research institutions, including the Royal
Scientific Society and other private sector institutions. They will also visit
the University of Jordan's faculty of pharmacy, four pharmaceutical
manufacturers, JFDA quality control laboratories, and the King Hussein Cancer
Centre.
The JFDA has four food testing laboratories and one drugs testing laboratory.
The Kingdom has six clinical research institutions in both the private and
public sectors, and around 15 pharmaceutical companies.
The delegation is expected to meet with Prime Minister Faisal Fayez and Minister
of Health Saeed Darwazeh, noted Mawajdeh.
The USFDA visit comes after Minister of Health Saeed Darwazeh and the JFDA
director met with US Secretary of Health and Human Resources Tommy Thompson in
the US recently to discuss ways to improve food and drugs safety in the Kingdom.
The JFDA is the product of 10 years of planning, and initially was a department
in the Ministry of Health's jurisdiction. It is the first of its kind in the
Arab countries.
The JFDA works together with its Australian and EU counterparts besides the
USFDA.