Mr Sang Guowei, Dr Yin Li, Dr Sun Xianze, Mr Li Yunlong, ladies and gentlemen,
Good afternoon!
On behalf of the World Health Organization, and Director-General Dr Margaret Chan, it is a great pleasure for me to speak at this WHO Collaborating Centre Inauguration Ceremony for the National Institutes for Food and Drug Control.
Dr Margaret Chan has sent a letter of congratulations. Please allow me to read it now.
National Institutes for Food and Drug Control,
On the occasion that the National Institutes for Food and Drug Control (NIFDC) was designated as a WHO Collaborating Centre for Standardization and Evaluation of Biologicals, and on behalf of WHO, I’d like to extend my warmest congratulations to you.
This designation is the result of a productive collaboration between NIFDC and WHO for a long time, which also embodies the outstanding performance of NIFDC in quality control, standards development and testing method research for biological products.
Your achievement indicates that China has earned an international first class seat in the field of quality control of biological products.
I hope that under the the arrangement and coordination of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Standardization and Evaluation of Biologicals, you will continuously overcome technical difficulties in drug quality control and make an important contribution to health improvement of the people of the world.
Dr. Margaret Chan
Director-General
World Health Organization
With these words from our Director-General Dr Margaret Chan, allow me to add that I am pleased to see that today NIFDC joins the WHO Collaborating Centre family. So far more than 60 Collaborating Centres have been designated from China, making China a leader in supporting the global work of WHO.
These centres have proven to be an important resource, providing national expertise, technical advice, and implementation capacity to WHO-supported programs. These centres also benefit from WHO knowledge transfer and capacity strengthening activities.
The National Institute for Food and Drug Control is the leading quality control institute in China, with more than 300 laboratories. Over the years, it has made remarkable achievements. Two recent examples:
In 2009, National Institutes for Food and Drug Control took the lead in supporting China's development of the first H1N1 vaccine to be produced globally. In a Global Fund project, in 2012, National Institutes for Food and Drug Control became a WHO Prequalified quality control laboratory for chemical products, meaning the quality management system is operating according to WHO standards.
Now, as a new WHO Collaborating Centre, National Institutes for Food and Drug Control can play important roles in five areas:
- First, to support WHO in developing international written standards for production and quality control of vaccines and biologicals;
- Second, to contribute to the development of international standards and reference materials for vaccines and biologicals;
- Third, to conduct research and development of quality control assays for vaccines and biologicals, particularly the development of new and improved test methods following WHO priorities;
- Fourth, to contribute to regional work to assure the quality and safety of vaccines and biologicals;
- And fifth, to provide technical assistance in assuring the quality of vaccines and biologicals.
On this occasion, we are pleased to affirm that we will further strengthen our collaboration with NIFDC, and draw on the Institute's capacity and expertise in improving the standardization and evaluation of biological products, in China and beyond.
On behalf of WHO, I look forward to our successful collaboration.
Thank you.