Access to quality medicines
The Working Group 'Access to Quality Medicines' is one of
Be-cause Health's permanent working groups.
It includes various Belgian organisations and individuals, all
concerned with the issue (of access to- and quality) of medicines
and diagnostics in developing countries.
Some of the most regular contributors include the Belgian
Development Agency (BTC-CTB), Memisa, the Africa Europe Faith and
Justice Network (AEFJN), MSF Belgium, the Damian Foundation and the
Institute of Tropical Medicine (ITM).
The Working Group comes together on a regular basis to discuss
medicine and pharmaceutical related topics.
It aims at influencing the pharmaceutical policies in Belgium, both
at government and at organisation level.
Late concerns recurrently address issues of quality of medicines
from two perspectives:
- A regulatory perspective, with a focus on pharmaceutical export
regulations of European countries and their consequences for access
to quality medicines in developing countries.
- An institutional perspective, with a focus on improvement of
the quality assurance framework (policies and quality assurance
systems) of organisations and institutions involved in the
acquisition and distribution of medicines and other medical
products.
One of BH-WGM's major achievements was the launch in 2007 of a
Charter for the quality of medicines, vaccines, diagnostic
products and small medical material. The Charter defines a
number of essential quality criteria for the purchase of these
health products. Signatories of the Charter commit themselves to
adopt those principles, as to establish or strengthen quality
assurance (QA) systems within their respective organisations.
On the longer term, this initiative is expected to contribute to an
improvement of the regulation of the international pharmaceutical
market.
So far, 20 Belgian organisations have signed the charter. Many of
them have been disseminating the charter and its annexes (a
technical checklist) within their own networks and encouraging
other organisations (North or South based) to adopt it as well. The
document has readily been translated into French and Spanish.
Welcome!
Contact:
Chair, Tine
Demeulenaere, Damian Foundation
Secretary, Dirk Van der Roost, Institute of
Tropcial Medicine