promoting patient-centred healthcare around the world advancing the fight against counterfeit...

Promoting patient-centred healthcare around the world

Advancing the fight against counterfeit medicines

Ms. Regina KamogaIAPO Board Member,

Country Manager, CHAIN, Uganda

23rd IFPMA Assembly 11-12 October 2006 Geneva, Switzerland

Promoting patient-centred healthcare around the world

An African patient perspective onprevalence of counterfeits

In Africa there is generally a low

level of awareness regarding

counterfeit medicines.

Poverty, vulnerability of patients

suffering from mass killer

diseases e.g. Malaria, TB and

HIV/AIDS and failure of public

health systems, have provided

fertile ground for counterfeit

medicines to prevail

Promoting patient-centred healthcare around the world

Perpetrators include (among others);

• Importers

• Smugglers

• Pharmacists

• Healthcare providers

• Local manufacturers

• Regulators with personal interests

Promoting patient-centred healthcare around the world

How they get away with it

• Limited facilities to test for quality

• Political Interference

• Inadequate financial, institutional &

human resource capacity for coordination

& implementation of national drug policies

• Borders too porous especially for

landlocked states, thus facilitating

smuggling

Promoting patient-centred healthcare around the world

How they get away with it

• High and prohibitive pricing for some

drugs provides ready market for cheaper

counterfeits

• Weak law and enforcement – inconclusive

investigations, prosecutions and non-

deterrent sentences

• Public ignorance

• Corruption

Promoting patient-centred healthcare around the world

How to curb counterfeiting

• Political will

• Collaboration amongst all stakeholders

• Strengthen institutional and human resource capacity

• Design and implement consumer-targeted and consumer-basedinformation, education, and communication campaigns

• Fight corruption

• Pharmacovigilance

• Cooperation with and sensitization of regulatory and law enforcement bodies

Promoting patient-centred healthcare around the world

How rich countries can help

A Global problem needs a global solution

• Global regulation and enforcement-strict export control mechanism

• Subsidize medicines for poor countries

• Increase funding for essential medicines for poor countries

• Fund initiatives that promote information and empowerment of patients

• Technical and technological assistance to developing countries

Promoting patient-centred healthcare around the world

IAPO’s role in the fight against counterfeit

medicines

A Unique global alliance of national, regional and

international groups representing patients across disease

areas

• Involved with the WHO initiative IMPACT(International Medical Products Anti-Counterfeiting Taskforce)

• Exploring how to provide balanced accurate information to patients and the public to raise awareness of the problem of counterfeit medicines and how to check medicines : A patient safety tool is in the process of being produced

  IAPO’s stanceA coordinated multi-stakeholder and multi-level approach, sharing

knowledge and resources has the potential to be highly effective

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Promoting patient-centred healthcare around the world