A senior delegation from the China State Food and Drug Administration (sFDA) is participating in an 8-day training program on food and drug regulatory matters, held at the Yale School of Public Health (YSPH). A welcome ceremony took place on Sunday, April 13 and the program will end on the evening of April 22 with a formal delegation dinner attended by Paul Cleary, Ph.D., Dean of YSPH as well as Dr. Shuhui Qu, the Deputy Commissioner of the sFDA.
Robert Makuch, Ph.D., Professor of Biostatistics, led the effort to create the training program after discussions last Fall with Dr. Qu. Being trained as future leaders of the sFDA, the delegation members include directors and associate directors of province sFDA offices and senior members from the central Beijing sFDA. The training program began with the keynote speaker Peter Barton Hutt, a senior counsel from Covington and Burling in Washington, D.C. Hutt was past general counsel of the United States Food and Drug Administration and is a founding member of the Institute of Medicine. His book on Food and Drug law is world-renowned, and the standard reference for these matters. Other speakers included current and past senior FDA officials, academicians, and industry leaders.
It is anticipated that this training program will be repeated in future years, to provide guidance in the creation and implementation of future directions and initiatives of the sFDA.