APEC economies move against fake drugs

ASIA-PACIFIC Economic Cooperation (APEC) economies are working on ensuring pharmaceutical supply chain security and integrity.

Health Undersecretary Kenneth Hartigan-Go said member economies have identified the supply chain of pharmaceutical drugs as an important issue since there are problems on counterfeiting and fake drugs.

“It started a year ago. We’re putting more efforts to train regulators, law enforcement agencies, the Customs, laboratories to align ourselves to create a system of tracking or traceability of products. It’s an ongoing thing,”

Go said in a press conference at the APEC 2015 international media center yesterday.

Adapting to global standards is also important in ensuring efficiency of tracking products, he added.

Blood supply, quality and safety is one of the topics in the APEC meetings.

Go said this differs among the 21 APEC economies and there is a need to harmonize standards of blood supply, quality, safekeeping and encouraging people to donate.

Peter Sheehan, research director of The Victoria Institute of Strategic Economic Studies in Australia, said a scheme to allow the 21 APEC economies to effectively share health innovations and knowledge is also in the pipeline.

Sheehan, who is also the co-chairman of the APEC Life Science Innovation Forum (LSIF), said innovations on vaccines and screening for cervical cancer, which is a major “killer of women” that is even worse than breast cancer in a couple of APEC members.

He said information sharing and development, knowledge, best practices and methods applied by individual economies can be shared among APEC members.

“There must be recognition that health is critically important to society’s welfare and its development. It shouldn’t be treated as just one of the many things that the government has got to find some attention to,” Sheehan said.

He said APEC economies are already starting to realize the importance of health in sustaining economic development.

Undersecretary Go, reading a statement issued by the Philippine Department of Health, said ensuring and promoting good health is vital in stimulating and sustaining social and economic development.

“In order to have inclusive growth and sustainable development, there is a need to invest in health communities and this is one of the efforts that we are putting together— healthy communities, empowering people and using the whole of government and the whole of community approach is necessary,” Go said.

The LSIF, which Sheehan co-chairs, and the Health Working Group are working on the “Healthy Asia-Pacific 2020” road map that aims to promote health and well-being.

Go said among the prioritized diseases by APEC economies are those that top the causes of mortality and morbidity like obesity and hypertension.

“If we cut it down, it would redound to a better and healthy population,” he said.

He also said APEC economies are aware of the increasing cases of HIV.

“It continues to be top of our priority in minimizing it, not just through treatment but prevention, public education and intervention. (We are) aware of rising cases, through drug abuse, sharing of tainted needles,” he added.