Action Points and Agenda
Inter-Agency Pharmaceutical Coordination group (IPC)
Meeting of 30 and 31st May 2013
Essential Medicines and Health Products
World Health Organization
Geneva
Objectives of the IPC meeting:
The IPC is a coordination platform on pharmaceutical sector matters involving primarily UN
agencies and other international partners active in medicines and health products policies.
Every six months, senior pharmaceutical advisers from these agencies meet to: 1) share
information on their current work, achievements and challenges; 2) share vision on
pharmaceutical sector issues of common interest and agree on joint approaches and
interventions; provide an update on on-going joint activities and programmes; 3) plan and
coordinate preparation and dissemination of inter-agency policy, guidelines and tools.
Action points for next meeting:
Access to Essential Medicines and Health Products
 Updates from IPC members on their Post 2015 and Universal Health Coverage agenda;
share successful country stories on improved access to medicines and its impact on UHC
(All);
 Revision of IPC Inter-Agency Guidelines: “Operational Principles for Good Pharmaceutical
Procurement” - (Action: WHO/EMP-AMDS)
 Update on initiatives for mitigating medicines shortages (Action: FIP & WHO)
 Share information on initiatives on differential pricing globally and within countries;
explore development of guidance for country implementation of drug benefit schemes for
contributing to UHC (Action: The World Bank & WHO);
 Update on Cold Chain challenges and solutions (Action: UNICEF);
 Revision of the New Emergency Health Kit 2011; address the issue of waivers for medicines
supply in humanitarian assistance situations (Action: WHO)
 Briefing from AmFM, lessons learnt and current development (Action: AmFM/Global Fund);
 Update on initiatives for sustainable procurement and safe disposal of health technologies
(Action: UNDP & UNFPA)
Quality, Safety and Efficacy
 Write an IPC position paper on the value of Pre-Qualification (PQ) programmes for
essential medicines and other health products and its implication on procurement, prices,
safety and on National Regulatory Authorities’ (NRA) performance (Action: WHO).



Update on the development of the Model Quality Assurance Systems for procurement
agencies tool (MQAS) and on its use in countries for PQ of procurement agencies (Action:
WHO & Global Fund);
Outline criteria required for being a Stringent National Regulatory Authority and consider
implications for NRAs strengthening initiatives; Explore relevance of a NRA grading system;
explore future inclusion of performance indicators in WHO NRA Assessment tool; (Action:
WHO & Global Fund)
Update on SSFFC global process and on Rapid Alert System (RAS) project in countries;
outline proposals on how to address traceability of SSFFC medicines and how to support
countries carry out investigations and to take appropriate measures when RAS reports are
available (Action: WHO);
Other
 IPC web page updated with IPC members key publications and reports as per the latest IPC
agenda (Action: WHO);
 Share dates of IPC Member key events and post them on the IPC web (Action: WHO);
 Documents and training resources of IPC members are stored in WHO EMP Portal (Action:
WHO).
IPC AGENDA
IPC meeting: 30th and 31st May 2013
Venue: WHO, Geneva, Room E 110
Thursday, 30th May
Chair: Kees de Joncheere, WHO/EMP
Introduction
09.00 - 09.10 Opening and welcome: Kees de Joncheere
09.10 - 09.20 Introduction of participants
09.20 - 09.30 Action Points from the previous IPC meeting:
Kees de Joncheere
Update on agencies achievements in the last 6 months
(Agencies representatives provide brief highlights of the agency's work since the last IPC
meeting - last 6 months)
09.30 - 10.30
Updates from UN and other International agencies (10 minutes each)
(WHO/EMP, WHO/AMDS, WHO/GMP, WB, UNDP)
10.30 - 11.00
Tea/Coffee break
11.00 - 13.00
Updates from UN and other International agencies (10 minutes each)
(UNFPA, UNICEF, UNIDO, GDF, TGF, GAVI, PFSCM, FIP)
13.00 - 14.00
Lunch
Chair: Gilles Forte, WHO/EMP
Global trends in essential medicines and health products policies
14.00 - 15.30 Model Quality Assurance System for Procurement Agencies - the QUAMED
experience: Sabine Kopp (WHO/EMP), Joelle Daviaud (TGF), Christophe
Luyckx & Corinne Pouget (Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium)
15.30 - 16.00 Tea/Coffee break
16.00-16.45
Priority Medicines for Europe and the World: Richard Laing (WHO/EMP)
16.45- 17.30 WHO Medicines Portal: Richard Laing, Claude Dare (WHO/EMP)
Friday 31st May 2013
Chair: Kees de Joncheere, WHO/EMP
Global trends in essential medicines and health products policies (continued)
9.00 - 9.45
9.45 - 10.30
10.30 - 11.00
Quality assurance for essential medicines and health products: Updates
The Prequalification Programme: Kees de Joncheere, Jacqueline Sawyer,
David Wood, Gaby Vercauteren, WHO/EMP
The Global Fund Quality Assurance Policy: Sophie Logez (The Global Fund)
Strategic approaches to safety surveillance: Patrick Zuber, Shanti Pal,
WHO/EMP
Coffee/Tea break
11.00 - 11.45 Universal Health Coverage: David Evans & Kees de Joncheere (WHO/HIS)
11.45-12.15
Briefing on the 19th Expert Committee on the Selection and Use of Essential
Medicines held in Geneva 8 – 12 April; Medicines information on smart phones:
present and future: Krisantha Weerasuriya, WHO/EMP
12.15-14.00
Lunch
Chair: Gilles Forte, WHO/EMP
Interagency collaboration in essential medicines and health products
14.00 - 14.45 African Union Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Plan for Africa (PMPA): Updates
Alastair West, UNIDO and Zafar Mirza (WHO/PHI)
14.45 - 15. 15 The UN Commission on access to live saving commodities for maternal and child
health: Updates - Francisco Blanco (UNICEF); Lisa Hedman & Adriana
Velazquez-Berumen, (WHO/EMP)
15.15- 15.45 Sustainability and health initiative: Updates
Rino Meyers (UNDP) & Susan Wilburn (WHO/HQ)
15.45-16.00 The interagency list of essential medical devices: Updates
Adriana Velazquez-Berumen, (WHO)
16.00- 16.30 Next meeting and closure: Kees de Joncheere (WHO/EMP)