The National Health Surveillance Agency institutes its new Innovation Policy

The National Health Surveillance Agency institutes its new Innovation Policy

Ordinance 1,100/2023, which establishes the Innovation Policy of the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa), was published last Monday in the Federal Official Gazette (DOU). Among the document’s objectives are: the promotion of efficient institutional results; the development of products and services subject to health surveillance that are based on new technologies; and the improvement of Anvisa’s capacity to deal with complex issues.

Among the nine principles adopted by the Policy, it is worth mentioning the focus on the citizen and the public interest, as well as the recognition of innovation as a central strategy for improving ANVISA’s performance.  The Policy is divided into 3 axes of implementation: innovation capacity and culture; technology and digital transformation; and regulation and access to health. Thus, these axes are broken down into guidelines, and here we highlight: the allocation of resources and priority for the development of regulatory projects aimed at innovation in health and the encouragement of cooperation strategies and access to information for regulatory confidence and health risk monitoring with intensive use of information technology.

In the third chapter, when dealing with governance and innovation management, it is worth highlighting some pertinent points. Firstly, when it comes to regulatory projects, the Policy establishes that “the unit responsible for improving regulatory quality must promote actions and initiatives for innovation in the regulatory process that favor the implementation of this Policy, including coordination and advice to units for the development of innovations in regulation” (Art. 4, §2).

On another topic, with regard to Intellectual Property, Anvisa states that the planning of its contracts and partnerships should consider issues related to IP on the results generated, the handling of possible conflicts of interest, and information security (Art. 6, §2).

Anvisa’s Innovation Policy seeks to consolidate principles and priorities for the development of innovation actions, playing an important role in stimulating new technologies and services in the area of Brazilian public health.

The Ordinance can be accessed via the following link: Portaria 1.10/2023

Note: For quick release and cost control, this English version is provided by automated translation without human review.