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Mon - Apr 05 -- Fri - Apr 09

17th Meeting of the ASEAN Consultative Committee on Standards and Quality Pharmaceutical Product Working Group (ACCSQ PPWG). Working Groups: Health Life Sciences This event will be held in Thailand. If interested please contact: Susan McKinney, Manager, Life & Health Sciences Working Group, smckinney@usasean.org, 65 6339-1982

About the Working Group
As a reflection of the health and life science sector’s importance not only to the economies of Southeast Asia, but to the partnership between the US and ASEAN, the Council maintains a Health & Life Science Working Group. The group is a committed cluster of leading health care and life science companies whose interest focus on having everyone healthy in ASEAN. Covering pharmaceuticals, health therapies, medical devices and equipment, health and related IT life science systems, the group endeavours to address a multiplicity of key stakeholders maintaining that a healthy population will significantly contribute to the economic well being of ASEAN. US-ASEAN Business Council members commit to the ASEAN Health Ministers’ vision of “Healthy ASEAN 2020” which adopted that ‘health shall be at the center of development and ASEAN cooperation in health shall be strengthened to ensure that our peoples are healthy in mind and body, and living in safe environments'.

 

What We Do
Initiatives by the group focus on dialogue with the ASEAN government to work collaboratively in identifying policies and helping to build institutions that enhance each country’s respective health, life science and investment environments. The Health & Life Science Working Group is responsive to the fact that events such as SARS, Avian Influenza and financial crisis’s have challenged public health systems accentuating the need to intensify the dialogue and engagement with ASEAN governments at both a working and senior level and in both health and commerce areas, to facilitate health care reform to achieve better health outcomes.

The Working Group is strengthening its relationship as a committed group of industry experts within regulatory and health care areas with the ASEAN Secretariat. The Group has participated in the ASEAN Working Group on Pharmaceutical Development (AWGPD) and the ASEAN Experts Group on Communicable Diseases (AEGCD) who both report to the ASEAN Senior Officials on Health Development and the ASEAN Consultative Committee on Standard and Quality (ACCSQ) Pharmaceutical Product Working Group (PPWG) meetings.

The Group has convened dialogue sessions with the Ministry of Trade, Singapore, lead for healthcare within the ASEAN Framework Agreement for the Integration of Priority Sectors in ASEAN and Senior Officer, Standards and Conformance Unit, ASEAN Secretariat to discuss the Roadmap for Integration of the Healthcare Sector. Members’ issues are also addressed through their participation in the Council’s Senior Executive Business Missions and the ASEAN Economic Ministers Meetings engaging with Health, Trade and Commerce Ministers. The Group continues to pursue their request for a meeting during the ASEAN Health Ministers Meetings.

The Group has provided opportunities to Members as speakers and participants in regional and international forums including the Medical Device Capacity Building Workshops held prior to the ASEAN Consultative Committee on Standard and Quality (ACCSQ) Medical Device Product Working Group (MDPWG), the APEC Anti-counterfeiting Health Products Seminars and working with Health Sciences Authority, Singapore in the organisation of these seminars as well APEC Life Science Innovation Forum meetings. The Group have hosted ASEAN health officials at breakfast discussions during the APEC Life Science Innovation Forum meetings in Vietnam and Singapore.

A series of three one-day seminars on anti-counterfeiting of medical products in Jakarta, Bangkok and Manila were organised by the Group. These seminars brought together key stakeholders from industry, health and customs government officials, ASEAN Secretariat, academia and the medical and health communities in each country. The Group has hosted health care dialogues in Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam as part of the Council’s Senior Executive Business Missions. These dialogues have initiated discussions, in an in-formal format, on public-private partnerships amongst government, the medical and health community and industry on related health care issues in the country. The dialogues have been led by Senior Officials and the Group’s Chair, Jhpiego.

Individual country challenges have confronted the health and life science industry’s business models. Despite these challenges American companies remain committed to Southeast Asia’s health and life science sector providing new and essential innovative medicines and therapies, medical devices and equipment and offering expertise for capacity building, training and education in the health care forum.

Chaired by Jhpiego with Vice-Chair Pfizer, the Working Group has adapted and remained committed to improvements and changes in health care and health policy for ASEAN and its people despite the challenges which have recently tasked this sector and may continue to do so in years to come.