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AgVetLink: Number 65, December 2007

Applications

The number of applications being received and processed is at a record high. For most of the year, however, we were on track to match or slightly exceed the work flow from last year.

We did anticipate an increase in new product applications for veterinary medicines as this had been well signalled by some companies. In October it became obvious that there was a general increase across all application types for plant compounds and veterinary medicines. (Veterinary medicine applications were three times last year's for October and November.) A large percentage of the increase is due to administrative applications, but there is a steady number of technical variations and new products including significant new actives. The net effect is that processing some applications may take longer than we would like.

It is important to remember the timeframes for applications over the holiday period will be longer as technically the regulatory working days stop pre-Christmas and start again in mid-January. This means that the forty day working time for an application received in early December will end mid- to late February.

Smart Track

The use of Smart Track applications has helped to maintain the work flow for technical applications. The links to the forms are on the website and their use is a real help to us to keep processing times down.

The Smart Track forms and brief guidance material about when/how to use them can be found on our website (with the registration forms). It is easier and faster for us if the Smart Track forms are sent in as Word files rather than PDFs. It also helps to advise us if there is data in hard form following an application received by email.