Regulators in the UK and US collaborate to improve and enhance the speed of medical technology applications to enable safer, faster access to patients by global regulatory convergence.

The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency of the UK (MHRA) is intensifying its partnership with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in promoting and increasing access to innovative medical technology for the patients.

At the Advanced Medical Technology Association (AdvaMed) meeting in San Diego, MHRA chief executive Lawrence Tallon announced that a plan was being made with the FDA to further bring the two countries closer in their regulatory practice. The plan is for the implementation of an international route of reliance, where medical technology and medical devices that are certified by a recognized authority, such as the FDA, can have access to the market of the UK more easily.

The new policies on medical technology should also be implemented in 2026 and the reliance channels should be introduced in 2027. The framework can then later be expanded to include approval of Australia, Canada and other international markets.

In this, the MHRA will also engage with the National Commission on the Regulation of AI in Healthcare, based in the US, with the participation of Brian Anderson of the Coalition for Health AI and Barry Stein of the Academic Care Center's Center of AI Innovation.

Tallon has noted that the cooperation is to guarantee that patients can enjoy rapid and safe access to state-of-the-art medical technologies to establish a globally consistent and innovation-focused regulatory setting.