Overview

The purpose of the Public Health Emergency Research Review Board (PHERRB) is to provide institutional review board (IRB) review of public health emergency research (PHER) protocols that are:

• conducted, supported, or regulated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS);
• subject to 45 CFR 46 and, as applicable, 21 CFR 50 and 56, and
• are multi-site studies or studies that would otherwise require multiple IRB review.

The National Institute of Health (NIH) Intramural IRB (NIH IRB) serves as the PHERRB. The mandate of the PHERRB is to provide investigators with expert, expeditious IRB review of human subjects protections within PHER protocols. By eliminating the need for multiple IRBs to review multi-site protocols, PHERRB review is envisioned be an efficient review process that should save both time and resources. The PHERRB is administered by the Office of IRB Operations (IRBO) within the Office of Human Subjects Research Protections (OHSRP), in the NIH Intramural Research Program (IRP).