Singapore and China Sign Memorandum of Understanding to Renew Commitment in Enhancing Regulatory Collaboration on Health Products

Singapore's Health Sciences Authority (HSA) and China's National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on 11 May 2026 in Beijing, China, to renew their commitment in health products regulatory collaboration, so as to support faster access to new and innovative health products for patients and healthcare systems in both countries. The renewed MOU expands the scope of regulatory cooperation into new emerging areas such as cell, tissue and gene therapy products, and strengthens collaboration to explore building facilitative regulatory pathways, pilot innovative schemes, capacity building and staff exchanges.  

2     The expanded partnership is expected to strengthen regulatory convergence and enhance opportunities for industry engagement, potentially enabling more efficient development, evaluation and market access pathways for the new innovative therapeutics and medical technologies. Both agencies will also continue to collaborate on the exchange of regulations, information and best practices, and potential joint efforts to combat counterfeit, falsified and substandard health products, including collaboration on inspections of manufacturing facilities and testing.

3     The renewal and expansion in the scope of the MOU, signed by Adjunct Professor (Dr) Raymond Chua, Chief Executive Officer of HSA, and Mr Huang Guo, Commissioner of NMPA, seeks to expand on the 2021 agreement, which covered the regulation of chemical drugs, active pharmaceutical ingredients, biological products, traditional Chinese medicines, medical devices and cosmetics. Building on the 2021 agreement, the renewed MOU expands the scope of collaboration to encompass cell, tissue and gene therapy products, a rapidly growing area of medical innovation. This timely regulatory co-operation will help strengthen regulatory capabilities and responsiveness in both countries, while maintaining robust standards of safety, quality and efficacy. Refer to Annex for photos.

4     HSA and NMPA share a longstanding bilateral relationship that has been progressively strengthened through a series of exchanges spanning more than 20 years, since the first MOU signed on 12 September 2003 with China's State Food and Drug Administration, known today as NMPA. This stronger collaboration also reinforces Singapore’s position as a trusted and globally collected regulatory hub for healthcare innovation. Through fostering this partnership, the MOU may create new opportunities for the industry, researchers and innovators seeking to develop and bring new and innovative products to both the markets. Presently, there are approximately 35 medicines and over 1,000 medical devices manufactured in China approved by HSA.