Drug regulators and representatives of the pharmaceutical
industry from the US, Europe and Japan have been
participating for nine years in the International Conference on
Harmonisation (ICH). The purpose is to eliminate duplicative
requirements for drug development and approval in the three
regions, thus providing patients with more timely access to
new medicines. The current major focus of ICH is
development of a Common Technical Document that would
form the basis for drug approval in the three regions.