REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- APEC member economies are moving ahead with a joint multi-year initiative to improve the integrity of medical product manufacturing and security of distribution chains across borders to combat fraud in the world’s largest consumer market. Senior administrative authority officials in APEC member economies, technical experts and industry representatives agreed to protect public health.
"There is considerable variation in medical product manufacturing, distribution, and import-export practice requirements, not to mention differences in the oversight of things like internet pharmacies which are proliferating," Co-Chair of the APEC Life Sciences Innovation Forum, Dr Ryan MacFarlane said recently.
Their priority is to improve access to safe medicines. MacFarlane explained that the only way to ensure medical product quality and safety and that international shipments flow in a robust, secure way was through the establishment of a seamless regulatory environment based on global standards and the type of far-reaching policy coordination we are pursuing now.
APEC economies are working towards regulatory convergence for medical products by 2020, as agreed by APEC Trade Ministers who will meet this weekend in Qingdao, China. The focus is on stocktaking existing regulatory approaches and the use of public-private partnerships to drive the formulation and implementation of regulatory best practices. This is supported by capacity building training in areas like surveillance and monitoring of the movement of products not meeting established requirements.
"Keeping a lid on medical products that don’t meet required specifications, that are misbranded, adulterated or are counterfeit is a challenge for us all,” a compliance expert from the US Food and Drug Administration, Mark Paxton added.
Regulatory authorities will provide an update on the progress of their implementation work and identify next steps during an APEC High Level Meeting on Health and the Economy in Beijing in August.
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