Regulators

Regulatory affairs is not one regulator. It is the FDA on Monday, a notified body on Wednesday and the TGA’s recall notice on Friday — and a menu that named three of them was telling you about our filing cabinet rather than about your job.

So this is the register: every authority whose decisions we watch, what each one actually controls, where its own record lives, and what we have published on it. Where we have covered an authority, its stories are here. Where we have not, it says so — we would rather be caught short than have you click into an empty page and conclude we had nothing worth reading.

Regulatory News tracks 36 regulatory authorities across the Americas, Europe, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and Africa, and the international harmonisation bodies. 11 of them have published coverage on this site — 146 stories between 15 July 2026 and 24 September 2026 — and every entry below names what the authority actually regulates, links to its own site, and either lists that coverage or states plainly that we have none yet. Each story behind these counts is sourced to the primary record and edited by Connor Griggs. Last updated 24 September 2026.

The Americas

5 authorities · 2 with coverage

  • FDAUnited States

    U.S. Food and Drug Administration

    Medicines, biologics, devices, diagnostics and tobacco for the US market, through CDER, CBER, CDRH and the Commissioner’s office.

  • Health CanadaCanada

    Health Canada — Health Products and Food Branch

    Drug and device authorisations, recalls and safety communications for Canada.

  • ANVISABrazil

    Agência Nacional de Vigilância Sanitária

    Registration, inspection and post-market surveillance of medicines and devices in Brazil.

  • COFEPRISMexico

    Comisión Federal para la Protección contra Riesgos Sanitarios

    Sanitary registration and market authorisation of health products in Mexico.

  • ANMATArgentina

    Administración Nacional de Medicamentos, Alimentos y Tecnología Médica

    Authorisation and surveillance of medicines, food and medical technology in Argentina.

Europe

16 authorities · 7 with coverage

Asia-Pacific

8 authorities · 2 with coverage

  • PMDAJapan

    Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency

    Reviews medicines and devices for Japan; the MHLW grants the approval.

  • NMPAChina

    National Medical Products Administration

    Registration and inspection of drugs, devices and cosmetics for China, through the CDE.

  • MFDSSouth Korea

    Ministry of Food and Drug Safety

    Korean approval and surveillance of medicines, biologics and devices.

  • CDSCOIndia

    Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation

    Indian drug and device approval, import licensing and clinical-trial permission.

  • TGAAustralia

    Therapeutic Goods Administration

    Australian registration, listing and supply suspension of therapeutic goods.

  • HSASingapore

    Health Sciences Authority

    Singapore’s regulator for medicines, devices and blood products.

  • MedsafeNew Zealand

    New Zealand Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Authority

    New Zealand medicine consent, device notification and safety communication.

  • TFDATaiwan

    Taiwan Food and Drug Administration

    Taiwanese approval and inspection of medicines and devices.

Middle East & Africa

3 authorities · 0 with coverage

  • SFDASaudi Arabia

    Saudi Food and Drug Authority

    Saudi registration and market surveillance of drugs, devices and food.

  • SAHPRASouth Africa

    South African Health Products Regulatory Authority

    South African registration, licensing and recall of health products.

  • EDAEgypt

    Egyptian Drug Authority

    Egyptian medicine and device registration, and regional reliance decisions.

Global bodies

4 authorities · 0 with coverage

  • WHOUnited Nations

    World Health Organization

    Prequalification, emergency use listing and the guidance many national regulators adopt wholesale.

  • ICHInternational

    International Council for Harmonisation of Technical Requirements for Pharmaceuticals for Human Use

    Writes the Q, S, E and M guidelines the major regulators then adopt as their own.

  • IMDRFInternational

    International Medical Device Regulators Forum

    Where device regulators agree common terms — adverse-event codes, SaMD definitions, audit programmes.

  • PIC/SInternational

    Pharmaceutical Inspection Convention and Pharmaceutical Inspection Co-operation Scheme

    Harmonises GMP inspection between 50-odd authorities and underwrites their mutual reliance.


A note on who decides what

Three relationships in this list trip people up, so they are worth stating outright. In the European Union the EMA gives the scientific opinion and the European Commission takes the decision that binds; a CHMP positive opinion is not yet an authorisation. For devices in Europe the certificate comes from a notified body — a designated private company, not a regulator — under the eye of national competent authorities. And in Japan the PMDA reviews while the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare approves.

The national agencies of EU and EEA member states — ANSM, BfArM, AIFA and the rest — keep real powers of their own over national authorisations, inspections, clinical trials and safety communication, which is why they are listed separately rather than folded into the EMA. When one of them acts alone, as ANSM did in writing to 1.6 million patients about a contraceptive, it is that agency’s decision and we report it as such.

Missing one?

If an authority belongs on this list, say so: editor@regulatorynews.com. The register is deliberately broader than our coverage — it is the map of the beat, not a claim about how much of it we have walked.