Essay from the year 2004 in the subject Medicine - Other, grade: good, Anglia Ruskin University, language: English, abstract: In 2001, when the Clinical Trial Directive 2001/20/EG was released in the European Union, Article 15 stated the regulations and legislation for government inspections of trial sites to be implemented by the Member States. The competent authorities of the Member States shall verify protection of the rights and welfare of trial subjects, compliance with the provisions of good clinical practice and the quality of data generated in clinical trials by appointing inspectors to inspect the sites concerned with any clinical trial. The European Medicines Agency (EMEA), which needs to be informed about the inspections, shall coordinate them. The inspections are performed on behalf of the European Union; the results should be accepted by all Member States. In Germany, authorisation of inspections is detailed in the German Drug Law and the corresponding GCP ordinance. The BfArM (Bundesinstitut für Arzneimittel und Medizinprodukte) is the responsible German regulatory authority. The UK competent authority is The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). In the US inspections are regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The specific instructions for inspecting Clinical Research Organisations (CROs) are given in the Bioresearch Monitoring Compliance Program No. 7348.810. What is an inspection? The definitions given in the different regulations are very similar. The ICH GCP Guidelines §1.29 [1] state:Inspection: the act by a regulatory authority(ies) of conducting an official review of documents, facilities, records, and any other resources that are deemed by the authority(ies) to be related to the clinical trial and that may be located at the site of the trial, at the sponsors and/or contract research organisations (CROs) facilities, or at other establishment deemed appropriate by the regulatory authority(ies).