WFPMM STRATEGY OF COORDINATING WITH WHO REGIONAL GROUPS HIGHLIGHTED
This article was originally published in The Tan Sheet
Executive Summary
WFPMM STRATEGY OF COORDINATING WITH WHO REGIONAL GROUPS HIGHLIGHTED by the federation's new chairman, SmithKline Consumer Brands Managing Director-Strategic Development Peter Glynn-Jones, in his address to the World Federation of Proprietary Medicine Manufacturers' 11th General Meeting in Acapulco, Mexico on Oct. 30. Glynn-Jones promised that, in the future, the WFPMM would try to work closely with the World Health Organization headquarters as it sets goals for its regional organizations. Choosing "think global, act local" as the keynote of his address, Glynn-Jones said that WFPMM "will have to take the world and divide it up into regions, and start looking at the targets that can be set for each." He also emphasized that the WFPMM "needs now to look at developing countries." In addition to "specific" targets, Glynn-Jones recommended "measurement and review stages." He said that along with WHO, WFPMM would "need to look at how to reallocate resources" and utilize "existing strengths in the WHO regional offices." He said that WHO's Geneva headquarters would play "an important role as facilitator." Referring to WHO's goal of "Health for All by the Year 2000," Glynn-Jones said that "WHO realizes that it alone cannot meet the global target, and so it must enter more into partnerships in primary healthcare. WFPMM is ready and willing to do our part in furthering self-reliance in health care by encouraging appropriate self-medication programs with WHO." He added that "the time to be realistic is now, not seven years time." Glynn-Jones explained that in WFPMM, "each region will be different in its needs, expectations, and speed at which it can accommodate change. They already have a certain amount of autonomy and therefore, each can develop and implement strategies that are appropriate for that territory." In fact, WFPMM has already established two regional groups: ASEAN, the Asia/Pacific regional group which held its first meeting in Jakarta, Indonesia in April; and AESGP, which operates in the European Community. WFPMM is trying to extend its European organization through talks with industry located in Belarus, Latvia, Poland, and the Czech Republic about membership. Currently, WFPMM is working on activating a Latin American branch that would work with the Pan American Health Organization. Glynn-Jones also said that WFPMM is interested in establishing an African regional group to coordinate the activities of the four associated national trade groups on that continent: Zimbabwe, Nigeria, and Mauritius, all of which joined WFPMM within the last two years, and standing member South Africa. WFPMM intends "to establish regular regional meetings in Asia/Pacific, Africa, and Latin America in order to discuss local issues with local industry, consumer groups, health authorities and regional directors of WHO as we did recently in Jakarta," Glynn-Jones reported. He also suggested that WFPMM groups, in developing regions, could work with the WHO branches in developing "a protocol to test the experience of people in self-medication." Although Glynn-Jones noted that there is "a vast difference in the level of health care between developed and developing countries," he said that "a common thread in all their approaches has been to devolve responsibility from the state to the individual, from centralized to local care." "Difficulties faced by developed countries lie in recruiting the individual to move away from their dependency on doctors," and "the movement of medicines from Rx-to-OTC status is a recognition of that fact," Glynn-Jones asserted. He said that WFPMM will work globally to facilitate the switch process. But in developing countries, decision-makers should recognize "the point of view that even where there are no doctors, people can and should take the lead in their own health care," according to Glynn-Jones. Glynn-Jones said that WFPMM would be "formalizing the exchange of information among members through a leaflet listing publications and materials available worldwide on self-medication issues," as well as through the federation's annual report.