Downing Street and Cross Party Support for IHP - November 2004
International Health Partners, a new charity created to ensure safe and secure donations of pharmaceutical products from the UK, is being launched today (11 November 2004) at the House of Lords amid welcome letters across the political parties, including one from the Prime Minister. Stephen Timms, Financial Secretary to the Treasury and Minister for Corporate & Social Responsibility, is addressing the launch gathering. The occasion is being marked by the formal handing over of the first pack of donated products, which will be used in Bangladesh by a Bradford-based medical NGO established by the local Bangladeshi community.
Anthony Dunnett CBE, President of IHP, said: “International Health Partners will enable a single coordinated response and interface between industry donors in the UK and those requiring medicines and healthcare supplies in the Developing World. This first pack exemplifies the partnership we will facilitate between NGOs and the pharmaceuticals sector, and between the British medical community and developing countries in need of basic medical supplies. By creating an infrastructure for pharmaceutical and medical supplies companies so that they can donate their products safely and securely, these commercial organisations can “produce to donate” and channel surplus production as donations to aid agencies operating at grassroots level in poorer countries.”
IHP is built on the successful operations of a sister Canadian venture that has been channelling donated pharmaceutical products to the Third World for over 10 years. There are a number of similar initiatives that have operated in the US for 50 years. “From experience in North America and from discussions across the UK healthcare industry we believe that there could be as much as £100 million of in-date and usable pharmaceutical products made available for donation in the UK each year,” said Anthony Dunnett.
Best estimates are that in the UK healthcare industry there are approximately £100 million of quality, in-date drugs and medical supplies that could be available for donation each year, by extending production runs and channelling production surpluses. In North America, the quality, in-date surpluses of essential primary medicines and supplies that arise, rather than being shipped to a clinical waste disposal facility, such product is donated to IHP’s sister organisation.
“The distribution and use of pharmaceutical products is regulated and controlled for very good medical safety reasons, so pharmaceutical companies have to be assured that whatever products they donate will be used properly. IHP is creating the infrastructure that will allow product donations to be made with all the appropriate checks and procedures in place, something that does not at present exist. IHP’s approach ensures that only the best quality, in-date medicines are made available to healthcare providers in the Developing World and protects healthcare professionals overseas from receiving inappropriate products and supplies,” explained Carsten Hennings, the recently appointed Director of IHP and formerly with Health Partners International of Canada.
Dr Antony Tucker of Dig Deep for Bangladesh, receiving the first travel pack from International health Partners, said: “The real need in developing countries is for the kind of basic drugs and medical supplies that we take for granted in the West. This pack contains precisely supplies of this kind.”
“The travel pack, donated by UniChem, the pharmaceutical and healthcare supplies wholesaler, includes 45 different items sourced from over 30 companies and has a wholesale value in excess of £2,000. The Travel Pack Programme will be the first IHP programme to be operational in early 2005. IHP’s other three programmes for targeted relief, disaster relief and special consignments will be introduced in mid 2005.
IHP has the support of the UK Pharmaceutical industry (all of the five industry associations: Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry; the Association of British HealthCare Industries; British Association of Pharmaceutical Wholesalers; British Generic Manufacturers Association; Proprietary Association of Great Britain,) and the British medical community (the British Medical Association, The Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland and a number of the Royal Colleges).
Resources and funding for its operations will come from concerned individuals; NGOs; Government; the pharmaceutical industry and the medical community, through direct cash donations, product donations, contributions towards the cost of handling product received and provision of help in kind (donations of equipment, warehousing and distribution materials, and other donations in kind).