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Dispute Settlement Under The African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement: A Preliminary Assessment, Olabisi D. Akinkugbe Nov 2020

Dispute Settlement Under The African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement: A Preliminary Assessment, Olabisi D. Akinkugbe

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

The African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement (AfCFTA) will add a new dispute settlement system to the plethora of judicial mechanisms designed to resolve trade disputes in Africa. Against the discontent of Member States and limited impact the existing highly legalized trade dispute settlement mechanisms have had on regional economic integration in Africa, this paper undertakes a preliminary assessment of the AfCFTA Dispute Settlement Mechanism (DSM). In particular, the paper situates the AfCFTA-DSM in the overall discontent and unsupportive practices of African States with highly legalized dispute settlement systems and similar WTO-Styled DSMs among other shortcomings. Notwithstanding the transplantation of …


Disagreements Within The Us Food And Drug Administration Regarding Approval Of Novel Therapeutic Agents, 2011-2015, Andrea Macgregor, Audrey D. Zhang, Joshua D. Wallach, Joseph S. Ross, Matthew Herder Jan 2020

Disagreements Within The Us Food And Drug Administration Regarding Approval Of Novel Therapeutic Agents, 2011-2015, Andrea Macgregor, Audrey D. Zhang, Joshua D. Wallach, Joseph S. Ross, Matthew Herder

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Thirty days after a novel therapeutic agent, a new molecular entity, or original biologic is approved, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) must publicly disclose its approval package, including scientific reviews completed by FDA disciplines (eg, pharmacology, statistical, and medical reviewers) and any available assessments by agency leadership.1 Although reports of internal disagreement have surfaced,2 it is unclear how often such disagreements occur. Disagreements document differing points of view or engaged discussion and may, thus, capture important scientific debates or signal challenging decisions within the agency. We sought to determine the frequency of disagreements within the FDA regarding approval …


Transparency Too Little, Too Late? Why And How Health Canada Should Make Clinical Data And Regulatory Decision-Making Open To Scrutiny In The Face Of Covid-19, Sterling Edmonds, Andrea Macgregor, Agnieszka Doll, Ipek Eren Vural, Janice Graham, Katherine Fierlbeck, Joel Lexchin, Peter Doshi, Matthew Herder Jan 2020

Transparency Too Little, Too Late? Why And How Health Canada Should Make Clinical Data And Regulatory Decision-Making Open To Scrutiny In The Face Of Covid-19, Sterling Edmonds, Andrea Macgregor, Agnieszka Doll, Ipek Eren Vural, Janice Graham, Katherine Fierlbeck, Joel Lexchin, Peter Doshi, Matthew Herder

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Hard-won gains in the transparency of therapeutic product data in recent years1 have occurred alongside growing reliance by regulators upon expedited review processes.2 The concurrence of these two trends raises fundamental questions for the future of pharmaceutical regulation about whether the institutionalization of transparency will foster improved oversight of drugs, biologics, vaccines, and other interventions, or else, provide cover for a relaxing of regulatory standards of safety, effectiveness, and quality.3 The urgency of the COVID-19 pandemic, however, has brought this tension into immediate and sharp relief. During the course of the global health crisis, regulatory bodies have markedly expanded the …


Regulators, Pivotal Clinical Trials, And Drug Regulation In The Age Of Covid-19, Joel Lexchin, Janice Graham, Matthew Herder, Tom Jefferson, Trudo Lemmens Jan 2020

Regulators, Pivotal Clinical Trials, And Drug Regulation In The Age Of Covid-19, Joel Lexchin, Janice Graham, Matthew Herder, Tom Jefferson, Trudo Lemmens

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Medicine regulators rely on pivotal clinical trials to make decisions about approving a new drug, but little is known about how they judge whether pivotal trials justify the approval of new drugs. We explore this issue by looking at the positions of 3 major regulators: the European Medicines Agency, Food and Drug Administration, and Health Canada. Here we report their views and the implications of those views for the approval process. On various points, the 3 regulators are ambiguous, consistent, and demonstrate flexibility. The range of views may well reflect different regulatory cultures. Although clinical trial information from pivotal trials …