The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 268 No 7203 p861-867
22 June 2002

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Regulatory agencies to merge

The Medicines Control Agency (www.mca.gov.uk) and its sister body the Medical Devices Agency (www.medical-devices.gov.uk) will merge in April 2003.

The statutory basis for regulation of both medicines and medical devices will not be changed by the merger. The, as yet unnamed, successor agency will have a single board of management, with more non-executives, and a new post of chairman. The existing chief executive of the MCA, Dr Keith Jones, is to retire in October this year.

Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health Lord Hunt said that the main reason for the merger was increasing convergence between the fields of medicines and medical devices. Some products were already combinations of drugs and devices.