Less than two months remain until the enforcement of the Agreement on common principles and rules of the circulation of medical products of the Eurasian Economic Union. A special session of the Annual National Regulatory Conference, FarmMedObrashenie, was devoted to this topic on 19 October 2015, where a representative from the Eurasian Economic Commission made a report on the status of second-level regulations to this agreement. It was reported that no final regulations have yet been published and all documents (thirteen in total) are currently still in ‘a high state of readiness’. All drafts are available online. Possible changes ‘will be of an administrative nature’ only and the final regulations are stated to be enforced ‘in very similar editions’.

Representatives from Roszdravnadzor (Russian medical device regulator) expect that ‘in order to avoid a repetition of the painful Russian experience of 2013’, with high probability during the transitional period imposed in chapter 11 of the Agreement, it will be possible to work on two parallel procedures: the local registration procedure of the country (effective today) and a new procedure of the Eurasian Union.

Here there are five questions on Eurasian medical device integration answered by Roszdravnadzor.

Question: If a medical device is registered in Russia today, will it be approved for whole Eurasian Economic Union after 1 January 2015?
Answer: No. All medical devices approved in member states according to local procedures remain approved only in the country of registration. For approval in the whole of the Eurasian Economic Union, medical devices must pass through the new EEU registration procedure.

Question: A registration file will be submitted 31 December 2015. Using which procedure will the medical device be registered?
Answer: In this case, the medical device will be registered under the local registration procedure of the member state.

Question: During the transition period, will the applicant have a right to choose which procedure to use (the new EEU procedure or the old local procedure)?
Answer: Yes, during this period it is now expected that the applicant will able to choose between the procedures.

Question: Will a medical device require the new EAC-med symbol for the EEU after 1 January 2016?
Answer: The new EAC-med symbol will be required for medical devices approved under the new EEU registration process. Medical devices approved under local procedures of member states do not need the EAC-med symbol.

Question: As was previously required, all Russian registration certificates must be replaced by 2017. Will enforcement of the new EEU regulations cancel this requirement?
Answer: No, all Russian registrations with unlimited validity issued before 2013 must be replaced by 1 January 2017 under a special administrative procedure. Roszdravnadzor will continue these replacements in 2016.

Этот пост по-русски