The Medicines Control Agency has, for the second successive year, set a record for assessing new drugs to be placed on the market.
According to the MCA annual report for 1999-2000, 28 new drug applications were assessed in an average of 34 working days last year, against a target of 100 days. The average for the previous year was 40 days.
The agency has now discontinued setting targets for assessing new applications.
During the year, the MCA also assessed 612 applications for changes to existing marketing authorisations. All were assessed within 100 days (against a target of 100 per cent) and 92 per cent within 68 days (target, 80 per cent). A fifth of these (21 per cent) were referred to the Committee on Safety of Medicines because they involved new indications or because MCA assessors thought that the applications should be refused.
Recording the achievement of Investor in People status by the MCA in July, 1999, its chief executive (Dr Keith Jones) recognised that it was his staff who made the MCA successful.

Market Towers, the MCA's London headquarters