Pretoria – The Department of Health has identified underfunding, under-staffing and weak policies as some of the most significant hurdles to increasing access to quality medical products and safeguarding patient safety, particularly in developing countries.
To address these challenges, the world’s medical regulators will meet in Cape Town from Tuesday to Friday next week for the Biennial International Conference of Drug Regulatory Authorities (ICDRA).
The conference is organised by the South African government and World Health Organisation (WHO). It will be held under the theme ‘Patients are waiting: how regulators collectively make a difference’.
ICDRA provides drug regulatory authorities of WHO member states with a forum to meet and discuss ways to strengthen collaboration. ICDRA meetings have been instrumental in guiding regulatory policies and priorities for action in national and international regulation of medicines, vaccines, biomedicines and herbals.
The conferences have been held since 1980 with the aim of promoting exchange of information and collaborative approaches to issues of common concern.
ICDRA 2016 will focus on the need for greater international collaboration between National Regulatory Authorities (NRAs) to improve their efficiency and expand patient access to safe and effective diagnostics, medicines, vaccines and medical devices in all countries.
WHO Director for Essential Medicines and Health Products, Dr Suzanne Hill, said 90% of the regulatory assistance to countries is focused on sub-Saharan Africa.
“Africa has made good progress recently to improve regulatory performance and ensure that patients can access safe and effective essential health products. But we need to keep up the momentum, and governments must invest more resources into this area.
“Strengthening the role of regulatory authorities will bring us closer to realising universal health coverage and universal access,” she said.
WHO estimates that at least three out of 10 NRAs in the world are not fit for purpose, largely due to limited resources and low recognition of their crucial role in their countries’ health systems. - SAnews.gov.za
