HHS Deputy Secretary Opens European Office of the HHS Food and Drug Administration | December 4, 2008 - The Honorable Tevi D. Troy, Ph.D., Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), cuts the ribbon to open the European office of the HHS Food and Drug Administration (FDA), at the U.S. Mission to the European Union (EU), in Brussels, Belgium. To the left of the Deputy Secretary is RADM Linda Tollefson, who will head up the HHS/FDA European team; to the right of the Deputy Secretary is the Honorable Kristen Silverberg, U.S. Ambassador to the EU. |
December 3, 2008 – The Honorable Tevi D. Troy, Ph.D., U.S. Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), today opened the first European office of the HHS Food and Drug Administration (FDA), at the U.S. Mission to the European Union (EU), in Brussels, Belguim. The Honorable Kristen Silverberg, U.S. Ambassador to the EU, and RADM Linda Tollefson, who will lead the HHS/FDA European team from Brussels, also participated in the ceremony. The Brussels office will spearhead HHS collaboration with the European Commission (EC) and its regulatory institutions on product safety. Developing reciprocal exchange placements with our peer regulatory institutions in the European Union is a key facet of this new approach. HHS is also in discussions with the EC to assign staff as liaisons to the European Food-Safety Agency (EFSA), located in Parma, Italy, and to the European Medicines Agency, located in London, in the United Kingdom, by the end of 2009, and would welcome EC staff to Washington, D.C. The HHS/FDA liaisons would play no policy-making or operational role at the EFSA and the EMEA, but would serve as conduits for better information-exchange and scientific dialogue as we approach our regulatory decisions on both sides of the Atlantic. Part of the "Beyond Our Borders Initiative," the opening of the HHS/FDA office at the U.S. Mission in Brussels is the next step in fulfilling the vision and strategy of the President's Action Plan on Import Safety and the HHS/FDA Food-Protection Plan, both launched in November of 2007. The ceremony in Brussels follows the opening of three HHS/FDA offices in China, in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, by HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt, in November 2008. The Department will open HHS/FDA offices in India and Central America in coming weeks. The goal of the HHS/FDA "Beyond Our Borders" strategy" is to foster collaboration with regulatory authorities around the world, as well as to forge partnerships with industry on the safety of food, animal feed, drugs and medical devices. These efforts will increase the safety of products for consumers in the United States and around the world. For more information about the U.S. Government’s efforts to ensure the safety of products imported to the United States, including the Cabinet-level Working Group on Import Safety chaired by Secretary Leavitt visit: http://www.importsafety.gov.
Last revised: December 05, 2008 | 
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