The three visitors from IMS were Dr. Tim Reed, Executive Director, Health Action International (HAI), Ms. Renee Vasbiner, Administrative Coordinator - MeTA Secretariat, HAI, and Ms. Deirdre Dimancesco. Technical Officer, Medicines, Access and Rational Use, Department of Essential Medicines and Health Products, WHO HQ.
Tim Reed here speaking during the meeting with MeTA Philippines members, headed by Chairman Roberto "Obet" Pagdanganan (former Bulacan Governor, former PITC President) and Ms. Cecile Sison, MeTA Secretary General.
The morning meeting was mainly on internal matters, like updates on both the international and Philippines offices of MeTA. There was a brief discussion though on pharmacovigilance, presented by Dr. Mariano Lopez. It is a joint project by the Philippine College of Physicians (PCP), MeTA Philippines, and the Rotary Club of Manila, in coordination with the FDA. Gov. Obet is also the club President this rotary year 2012-13.
The plan is to conduct random drug tests from selected drugstores and hospital pharmacies in terms of drug quality and safety. Any anomaly that will be detected, FDA can quickly act. The results of the FDA laboratory test will be (1) shared among the hospital therapeutics committees to improve drug procurement on the basis of good quality drugs and/or; (2)announced to the general public with considerations for possible litigations and/or; (3)left to FDA’s discretion and regulation.
For me this is a good initiative. Civil society organizations like PCP, MeTA and some Rotary Clubs can and should initiate this kind of projects to further protect patients. One participant narrated that they conducted a similar pharmacovigilance survey in the past, and they encountered difficulty getting the support and cooperation of some government hospitals, especially those run by the LGUs. For instance, they discovered that in a provincial hospital in Bohol, an IV supplied to the hospital was improperly packaged in a mineral water bottle (!).
