Lorraine Nolan has spent 17 years working in biopharma regulation and believes that, in order to stay on top of innovation, it has to become more flexible.

Ahead of her appearance at this year’s BioPharma Ambition event on 21 and 22 February in The Printworks at Dublin Castle, the chief executive of the Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA), Lorraine Nolan, spoke with Siliconrepublic.com about where biopharma regulation is right now, and where it’s going.

Speaking as someone who has worked in the biopharma sector for 17 years, Nolan said that in Europe, from an innovation standpoint, there has been a major change in attitude and even language over the past five or six years.

Arguably driving this has been the adoption of new technologies such as the internet of things, which promises to provide a wealth of new information through connected health devices – something the HPRA knows it has to manage carefully.

Words by Colm Gorey