The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 278 No 7438 p159
10 February 2007

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IT delays medicines licensing

Computer problems at the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency have been blamed for a growing backlog of applications for marketing authorisations.

Health minister Caroline Flint admitted to the House of Commons last month that “operational difficulties” with a new electronic data and document management system had caused the time taken to issue product licences and licence variations to grow longer. This meant that applications had to be prioritised according to the need for the medicine. The delays have had a particular impact on the market for parallel imports.