Getting up to speed

After decades of doing business without substantial changes, the U.K and Germany have moved to transform their regulatory agencies with reforms they say will bring innovative drugs to market faster.

This month, the U.K. Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency introduced regulations to abolish the Medicines Commission and the Committee on Safety of Medicines. The two commissions are being replaced by a new one - the Commission for Human Medicines - which will begin operating in November...