VICH Forum

Background

WOAH (founded as OIE) has been involved from the start in the formation of the International Cooperation on Harmonisation of Technical Requirements for Registration of Veterinary Medicinal Products (VICH) and has been represented by its Collaborating Centre ANSES in all its Steering Committee Meetings.

As indicated in its 5th Strategic Plan, WOAH encourages the use of VICH Guidelines by its Member Countries and in order to facilitate this, engaged with VICH to support the process of setting up the VICH Forum in which non-VICH members countries and regions can participate and learn first-hand about the VICH process. The VICH Forum aims to provide a basis for wider international harmonisation of technical registration requirements necessary for the marketing authorisation (also called “registration”) of a veterinary medicinal product.

The VICH Forum was created during the 26th VICH Steering Committee meeting, held in Tokyo, Japan, in November 2011. A number of countries and regional organisations which meet the criteria laid down in the Terms of Reference for this Forum, have since then met for the inaugural Forum, held in Brussels in June 2012 and subsequent Forum meetings, which take place at the time of VICH Steering Committee meetings.

The key issues of interest to the non-VICH countries coming together in the Forum are to better understand and actively contribute to the VICH Guideline development process, to suggest topics for new Guidelines, to provide feedback on the acceptance of existing guidelines and to discuss practical issues related to VICH guidelines, to receive training in the application of the Guidelines and to collaborate and share translations of guidelines into other languages.

Current members of the Forum
Countries

Argentina, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei, Burkina Faso, People’s Republic of China, Egypt, India, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, Rwanda, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Taipei, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, The Philippines, United Arab Emirates,
Uganda, Ukraine, Zambia, Zimbabwe (Observer: South Africa)

Regional organizations

ASEAN (representing Asia)

CAMEVET (representing the Americas)

CAPROVE

EAC (representing East African Community) 

SADC (representing South African Development Community) 

SENASA

SINDAN

WAEMO/UEMOA (representing West Africa) 

The role of WOAH

WOAH and its Collaborating Centre ANSES facilitate the relation and communication between Forum members, the VICH Secretariat and the VICH members. Minutes of the Forum meetings and other documents of relevance for Forum member countries and WOAH Member Countries interested in joining the Forum can be found on this webpage.

Meetings of the VICH Forum

12th Forum Meeting – 38th Steering Committee
Tokyo (Japan), November 2019

Next meeting of the VICH Forum
  • The 42nd VICH Steering Committee and 16 th VOF meetings are scheduled for the 13th – 16th November 2023 in Japan
  • The 43rd VICH Steering Committee and 7th VICH Public Conference will be held in November 2024 in Amsterdam
Service to Forum members

A need has been identified by Forum members for VICH Guidelines to be translated into other languages. WOAH, in collaboration with other organisations, makes those Guidelines which are already translated, available on this website. It needs, however, to be noted that only the English version as found on the VICH website is considered original and binding.

These Guidelines can be found as pdf files hereunder.

Russian (translated byWOAH)

VICH GL 3
VICH GL 8


Spanish
(translated by FDA see U.S. Food and Drug Administration)

VICH GL 3RVICH GL 29
VICH GL 9

VICH GL 31

VICH GL 22

VICH GL 32

VICH GL 23

VICH GL 37

VICH GL 28


French (translated by Health Canada, Veterinary Drugs Directorate, in 2004 and as otherwise indicated)  

VICH GL 1

VICH GL 12

VICH GL 21

VICH GL 2

VICH GL 13

VICH GL 22R

VICH GL 3

VICH GL 14

VICH GL 23

VICH GL 4

VICH GL 15

VICH GL 28 (2005)

VICH GL 5

VICH GL 16

VICH GL 31R

VICH GL 7

VICH GL 17

VICH GL 32R

VICH GL 8

VICH GL 18

VICH GL 33R

VICH GL 10

VICH GL 19

VICH GL 36 (2007)

VICH GL 11

VICH GL 20

VICH GL 37