Medicines systems: Convergence for access Dr Socorro Escalante WHO Country Office for Viet Nam 1

The goal of a national medicines systems remains to be availability, affordability, rational use and access to: Quality assured, safe, efficacious and affordable medicines 1

Medicines Systems 3 Access to Medicines Pharmaceutical Sector Public health needs and societal value Stewardship Government and Society The National Pharmaceutical Strategy Pharmaceutical Law

Translating the strategy and law into the medicines system 4

5 Source: Medicines in Health Systems, WHO and Alliance for Policy and Systems Research, 2014

Broad areas for collaboration 1. Policy development 2. Building capacity of institutions 3. Generating evidence 4.Governance, transparency and accountability 5.Innovation 6

Mechanisms of Collaboration The Technical Working Group on Pharmaceuticals Technical arm of the HPG Technical support for policy making and programme implementation Coordination of activities and support 7

Mechanisms of Collaboration The MeTA Model MeTA stands for Medicines Transparency Alliance Focus on improving transparency and governance in the pharmaceutical sector Multi-stakeholder engagement among government, industry and civil society Countries involved: Ghana, Kyrgyzstan, Jordan, Peru, Philippines, Uganda and Zambia Funded by DFID Current Secretariat: WHO and Health Action International (HAI) 8

Way forward Immediate: 1.Consultation process on the pharmaceutical law: consultations will be organized and HPG members will be called upon to participate Medium and longer-term: 1.Revisit the TWG (TOR and operationalize) for a coordinated DP support in the implementation of the Strategy and the Law 2.Explore other mechanisms to tackle broader and multi- sectoral issues 9

Thank you 1