Updates on asean harmonisation of tmhs

The ACCSQ TMHS PWG has its 29th meeting last month at Siem Reap, Cambodia. Though we had hoped that the PWG could finalise the Agreements and proceed with signing by early next year, issues on the industries' readiness/capability to implement the agreed technical requirements, in particular Stability Study and Shelf Life requirements, and GMP requirements were raised, as a result, the PWG was not able to proceed further until the matters are resolved.  The PWG will meet again in October 18 for further discussion. The tentative date for signing of the Agreement has now pushed back to October 2019, however we are still uncertain if the issues can be resolved by the next meeting.

The 2 Industry associations present at the product working group acknowledged that companies, especially the SME have difficulties meeting the stringent technical requirements, they are committed to upgrade the industry standards, as long as they are sufficient support in capacity building programmes.