Massimiliano Conti (Head of Swissmedic’s laboratory) explains Switzerland’s role in the international effort to combat nitrosamines.
Why does Switzerland play a special role when it comes to finding nitrosamines?“Although Swissmedic is a small organisation compared with the US FDA or the EMA – the European agency – it can make decisions quickly and always react immediately. We have highly qualified, experienced employees, a state-of-the-art laboratory and rapid access to all important information. Compared with authorities in neighbouring countries, we have a very lean organisation. The various Swissmedic divisions maintain an extremely efficient dialogue with each other, because that’s the only way we can overcome all challenges together.”
Why does Switzerland play this pioneering role?“We are involved at all levels internationally and can supply real-world examples, results, data and facts within a useful timeframe.”
How should Swissmedic position itself in the future?“We intend to keep playing a central role and creating a framework that will avoid each authority having to test everything themselves – and that will enable us to divide the work between us. This will get us to the screening stage, and thus to our goal, quicker.”
What does that mean in practical terms?“Our laboratory can share information in the European network and make use of the flow of information in its entirety. We have already developed and validated a large number of methods ourselves, and we make them available internationally. The same goes for our colleagues in market surveillance, authorisation and communication.”