Biopharmaceutical leader
Takeda Healthcare Philippines has recently concluded its Access to Medicines
Summit held in Makati, envisioning universal health coverage made accessible to
all without creating any financial hardships by 2030.
With
the overarching theme of “Onward
to a Transformed Healthcare System by 2030”, the event was joined by
stakeholders across the healthcare sector to share best
practices, identify possible opportunities for collaboration,
and fulfill their shared aspirations of improving the country’s access to
healthcare and medicines.
Participants
include representatives from the Department of Health, Department of Trade and
Industry, Department of the Interior and Local Government, healthcare
professional societies, patient organizations, and more. The summit is also in
collaboration with RiseAboveNow Business Consulting as co-convenor and
technical partner.
“The Access to Medicines Summit is an
opportunity to bring together the different sectors of the healthcare industry
for our unified vision of universal healthcare. Healthcare is one of the
fundamental rights of every human being, but it is still incredibly
inaccessible in many countries like the Philippines. Through this summit, we
hope that everyone will be made more aware of the obstacles we face, as well as
what we can do in our respective sectors and as an industry to help realize
this goal of universal healthcare,” said Country Manager of Takeda Healthcare
Philippines Loreann Villanueva.
Challenges of universal healthcare in
the Philippines
He
discussed that some medicines are not made equally available throughout the
whole country due to high transaction costs, with certain regulatory, economic
and political factors also potentially disincentivizing pharmaceutical companies
from introducing new drugs in certain areas. Dr. Ulep also shared that problems
in the supply chain lead to an untimely distribution of medicines in
communities.
“The
private sector has already perfected its system when it comes to supply chain
even in far-flung areas, and I think that the public sector needs to adopt that
through genuine private-public partnerships. We just need to sit together to
design the appropriate incentive mechanisms,” he said.
Aside
from these, Dr. Anna Guerrero, Director of the Pharmaceutical Division of the
Department of Health, also brought up how the coronavirus pandemic uncovered
the weaknesses and vulnerabilities of our current healthcare system before she
introduced the Philippine Medicines Policy as the country’s roadmap.
“The
Philippine Medicines Policy is not just learning from the barriers and
challenges that we have had over the past decade on the access to medicines,
but it’s also applying everything that we learned from the pandemic to create a
more effective plan for the country. That’s why the policy has strategies that
are targeted toward pandemic resiliency. We must make sure that the healthcare
system is not just prepared to fulfill universal healthcare, but also prepared
for any shocks that might come in the future,” she stated.
By
2030, the Philippine Medicine Policy’s vision is sustainable access to quality
and affordable essential medicines and reduced out of pocket spending aligned
with the Sustainable Development Goals and Universal Health Care agenda.
Achieving access to healthcare
Takeda,
together with its partners, underscored that achieving access to universal
healthcare will require a collective collaboration, not only by the government
but also the members of the health sector, including private institutions.
Likewise,
Dr. Guerrero presented a framework to encapsulate the recommended measures in
the health sector through an acronym A.C.C.E.S.S—Assurance of safety, efficacy and quality; Collaboration on availability and affordability; Commitment to the rational use of
medicines; Effective networking,
partnerships and good governance; Sustainable
financing and resources; and
Strengthening health systems.
The
framework presents an improved healthcare system for the Philippines through
the strengthening of medicinal regulatory systems, promotion of
self-sufficiency through collaboration and local production, rational
distribution and use of medicines, mainstreaming of traditional and
complementary medicines, good governance and transparency among stakeholders,
and a more aggressive research agenda to inform future policies and medicine
acquisitions.
“Access
is our aspiration—a joint aspiration of not only the government, but also the
private sector, and the healthcare professionals—and I’m very happy that you all
have embraced this. I hope you take it to heart because that is the goal of
universal healthcare—that our patients will have access,” said Dr. Guerrero.
Apart
from the series of talks, the summit conducted open forums that inspired shared
commitment to improving access to medicines by striving for advancement in
supply chain and research and development as well as produce innovations
including affordable and accessible medicines needed by the public.
Coming
from the insights and expertise of the participants of the AtM Summit 2022, a
Catalogue of Partnership Opportunities will be produced. This catalogue will
detail out possible collaborations among different health stakeholders, both
from the public and private sectors. The catalogue will be published and shall
be made accessible to all with the goal of improving access to medicines to
every Filipino.
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