The World Health Organization (WHO) announces that the Saudi Food and Drug Authority (SFDA), the National Regulatory Authority (NRA) of Saudi Arabia has achieved maturity level four (ML4) for medicines and vaccines regulation, the highest level in WHO’s classification of regulatory authorities for medical products according to the Global Benchmarking Tool (GBT) signifying that SFDA is operating at an advanced level of performance with continuous improvement. 

Regulation of medical products is extremely important for all health systems and for access to quality vaccines, medicines and other health products. In addition to ensuring the quality, safety and efficacy of medical products, regulatory authorities that function well also perform critical activities such as timely authorization of medical products and safety monitoring.