Project Banned Drugs

There has been alarming concern recently about the quality of a large number of medicines flooding the market. The question arises of the safety and efficacy of these medicines when safer, cheaper and equally effective alternatives exist. It is very important to not just warn but to ensure that medicines that are potentially hazardous are removed from the market. Especially if safer, effective and affordable alternatives exist.

HAIAP has recently completed a region-wide extensive survey on Banned Drugs. The result of which has seen countries like Nepal and Thailand in the process of urging their governments to remove danger drugs from the market for good.
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Project IFDCs

The availability, marketing, prescribing, dispensing, usage and development of fixed-dose combinations (FDCs) are becoming increasingly important from a public health perspective. Many of these FDCs are harmful and a vast majority of them are irrational. It is only a few selected FDCs which are widely used in the management of HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis, that are considered to be the foremost threats today.

The 15th edition of WHO Model List of Essential Drugs contains 25 FDCs out of 352 medicines in total (Appendix 3). Six of these are for the treatment of HIV/AIDS and five of them are for TB.

The National Essential Drug list of India (1996) contains 11 FDCs; the National Drug List of Nepal (Third revision:2002) contains 14 and the Sri Lankan List of Essential Drugs (Third revision:2006) has 16 FDCs out of 340 medicines. Although only a handful of essential FDCs have been recognized by WHO and the national essential drug lists of Nepal, India and Sri Lanka, a wider variety of FDCs are still available in the market today.

The HAIAP advocacy campaign to remove irrational fixed-dose combinations (IFDCs) is based on the 39th Report (2005) compiled by the WHO expert committee on specifications for pharmaceutical preparations (WHO technical report series 929).

JOB OPPORTUNITY AT HAIAP: COORDINATOR-DESIGNATE

Applications are invited from prospective candidates residing in the Asia-Pacific region for the following post which is based at the HAIAP offices in Colombo, Sri Lanka...
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HAI News #146 & 147

The 2008 year-end HAI News is a double issue and coincides with World Breastfeeding Week and World HIV/AIDS Day. The newsletter also features an excerpt of WHO Director-General Maragret Chan's timely speech on 'Globalisation and Health' at the 2008 UN General Assembly.
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PRESS RELEASE: Defend Affordable Drug Treatment in India

Bayer sues Indian Government to retain monopoly rights / International coalition demands protection of generic pharmaceuticals

Health groups call on German drugmaker Bayer to cancel the suit against the Indian government and domestic drug company Cipla in order to protect affordable drug treatment. The organizations fear that the fate of generics in India may hinge on this case and that thousands of Indians will die without affordable pharmaceuticals.

Last year Bayer sued the Indian government in the Delhi High Court for giving marketing approval to Cipla for Bayer's patented cancer drug Sorafenib. At present, the Indian drug regulator DCGI can give a marketing approval to a generic drug even if the medicine is patented in India. Public health experts point out that marketing approval for a drug is not an infringement of a patent, and the generic company can be challenged once it launches the drug.
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PRESS SCAN: HAIAP in the Spotlight

Coalition Against Bayer-Dangers: Health groups defend affordable drug treatment in India.
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People's Health Movement: Health groups call on German drug-maker Bayer to cancel the suit against the Indian government.
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