The Health Products Regulatory Authority is an Irish

regulatory agency A regulatory agency (regulatory body, regulator) or independent agency (independent regulatory agency) is a government authority that is responsible for exercising autonomous dominion over some area of human activity in a licensing and regulatin ...

. It advises the Irish government. It is responsible for both public and animal health. It regulates medicines, medical devices, clinical trials and other health products and monitors the safety of cosmetics. Until July 2014 it was known as the Irish Medicines Board. The Irish Medicines Board suspended

Nimesulide Nimesulide is a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) with pain medication and fever reducing properties. Its approved indications are the treatment of acute pain, the symptomatic treatment of osteoarthritis, and primary dysmenorrhoea in ...

from the Irish market and referred it to the EU Committee for Human Medicinal Products for a review of its benefit/risk profile due to the reporting of six cases of potentially-related liver failures by the National Liver Transplant Unit at

St. Vincent's University Hospital St. Vincent's Hospital ( ga, Ospidéal Ollscoile Naomh Uinseann) is a teaching hospital located at Elm Park, south of the city of Dublin, Ireland. It is at the junction of Merrion Road and Nutley Lane opposite the Merrion Centre, Dublin, Merrion ...

between 1999 and 2006. In July 2018 the authority recalled a number of medicines containing the active ingredient

Valsartan Valsartan, sold under the brand name Diovan among others, is a medication used to treat high blood pressure, heart failure, and diabetic kidney disease. It belongs to a class of medications referred to as angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARB ...

when an impurity was identified in a valsartan active substance manufactured at a facility in China. It produced a report on medicinal cannabis in 2018 which suggested a controlled access programme for cannabis products that are not capable of being authorized as a medicinal product. In 2017 it confiscated large quantities of counterfeit “high-end” beauty products, some of which were found to contain arsenic and lead. It also detained 948,915 dosage units (tablets, capsules, vials etc.) of fake or other illegal medicines, 40% more than in 2016. 47% were

anabolic steroid Anabolic steroids, also known more properly as anabolic–androgenic steroids (AAS), are steroidal androgens that include natural androgens like testosterone (medication), testosterone as well as synthetic androgens that are structurally related ...

s, 23% sedatives and 13% erectile dysfunction medicines. It brought six prosecutions.

References

{{reflist Medical and health regulators Medical and health organisations based in the Republic of Ireland Regulation in Ireland