Regulatory Society links with Chinese

An agreement has been reached between the international Regulatory Affairs Professionals Society (RAPS) and the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology (USST) in Shanghai, China, to work collaboratively in developing regulatory education content for the university.

As part of the agreement, RAPS will adapt some of its existing online course content to suit USST's students, help guide the university in developing new regulatory curricula and provide advice and support to the university. The partnership will initially focus on courses covering regulation of medical devices, but could cover pharmaceutical or other medical products in the future.

"USST is the only school in China offering bachelor's, master's and PhD programmes in medical devices and is in an important position for educating and training regulatory professionals in China and internationally," said Dr Baolin Liu, professor and dean, School of Medical Instrument and Food Engineering, USST, Shanghai. "We had hoped to partner with RAPS, the leading international regulatory professional organisation, and look forward to great success."

The healthcare sector in China is developing rapidly and the need for comprehensive regulatory knowledge is rising. The regulatory coursework offered through the RAPS-USST collaboration will be aimed at three primary audiences: potential and new regulatory professionals; scientists and engineers involved in medical technology research and development; plus government inspectors.

"This partnership represents an important step forward for the global regulatory profession and further demonstrates the profession's critical importance in the continued global expansion of the healthcare products sector," said RAPS chairman, Mark Gordon. "RAPS is glad to be in a position to help connect regulatory professionals in emerging healthcare markets like China with the collective expertise of the worldwide regulatory community."