Formulating explicit prioritized strategies for research and development

9 have collected data for purposes of the consultation may revisit it to test the proposed classification system and suggest improvements, if any. d. A technicalnational meetingreview may be organized to validate these outcomes before these are recommended for consideration by WHO. The consultation also identified and ranked seven potential priority areas for RD demonstration projects and proposed a scheme for informal collaboration by identifying lead and participating countries among the Member States for each project. This is shown in Table 1 below. Table 1. Proposed informal collaboration for demonstration projects among SEAR Member States Rank Priority Areas Lead Country Participating Countries 1 Combating tuberculosis in the Region development of diagnostics, vaccines, and new anti-TB drugs India Indonesia, Timor-Leste 2 Combating global diabetes by development of new diagnostics and new anti-diabetes drugs both traditional and modern medicines Sri Lanka Bangladesh, Thailand 3 New point-of-care diagnostics for fever of unknown origin in field settings India 4 RD in new drugs and diagnostics for cancer type of cancer to be identified referring o disease burden Indonesia Bangladesh, Thailand 5 Dengue vaccine Thailand India, Maldives 6 Pan-serotype pneumococcal vaccine India 7 Development of active pharmaceutical ingredients for medicines Bangladesh Source: Annex 2, Report of the Regional Consultation for developing a strategic work plan as a follow-up of the Consultative Expert Working Group on Research and Development: Financing and Coordination CEWG 25-26 July 2013, Bangkok, Thailand 15 At the national level, SEAR Member States have conducted activities to prioritize areas for health RD. Such activities were included as part of their report during the meeting held in Bangkok in December 2014 to assess progress in implementing the 8 elements and 25 sub-elements of GSPA- PHI in SEAR.. The results of the prioritization activities reported by the countries are presented in Annex3. 34 Global In 2008- , the Ne Pa t e ships fo Af i a s De elop e t NEPAD a d COH‘ED o du ted a study on the pharmaceutical innovation landscape and current approaches in Africa. The results for this study provided the evidence-base for the development of the initiative called Strengthening 10 Pharmaceutical Innovation in Africa which is a partnership between the African Union, NEPAD and COHRED. Part of this initiative is the development of the Pharmaceutical Innovation Framework and Grid tools which were designed to help countries to move forward in putting mechanisms for GSPA-PHI implementation into action at the national level. The tool helps countries do self- assessments, develop strategies, build capacity and partnerships to engage in innovation and improve access to essential medicines. 35, 36 In 2011, the African Health Observatory, an information technology platform designed to facilitate multi-stakeholder collaboration and partnership in accessing and using information for strengthening national health systems and improving health outcomes, 37 became operational, with the main objective of serving as a tool in addressing priority health problems in the Region, and bringing together key regional and global stakeholders for this purpose. It is the repository of the best health information available, and serves as tool to monitor health status and trends, and is expected to interact with national health observatories in the Member States to contribute to ME, data collection, and analysis at the national level. In the area of demonstration projects, the Secretariat, on 7 – 10 May 2014, convened four meetings with stakeholders interested in funding and or implementing the 4 projects shortlisted during the Global Technical Consultative Meeting of Experts held on 3-4 December 2013. 38 These projects are: a The Visceral Leishmaniasis VL Global RD and Access Initiative Proponent: Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative b Development of Class D CpG oligodeoxynucleotides D35 as an adjunct to chemotherapy for cutaneous leishmaniasis and post kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis Proponents: United States Food and Drug Administration; Osaka University, et al. c Exploiting the pathogen box : an international open-source collaboration to accelerate drug development in addressing diseases of poverty Proponent: Medicines for Malaria Venture d Development of easy-to-use and affordable biomarkers as diagnosis for types II and III diseases Proponents: African Network for Drugs and Diagnostics Innovation, Chinese Network for Drugs and Diagnostics Innovation, et al The assessment framework and indicators to measure success of the RD demonstration projects were earlier developed in an earlier meeting convened in Geneva on 10 March 2014 to examine additional information received on the 7+1 demonstration projects originally short-listed. 39

1.3 Encouraging research and development in traditional medicine

On 8 November 2008, the WHO Congress on Traditional Medicine held in Beijing, China, adopted the Beijing Declaration on Traditional Medicine which promoted the safe and effective use of traditional medicine, and called on WHO Member States and other stakeholders to take steps to integrate traditional medicine into national health systems. 40 In this Declaration, the development 11 of traditional medicine based on research and innovation in line with the GSPA-PHI was explicitly indicated as one of the six articles, namely: 1. Knowledge of traditional medicine, treatments and practices should be respected, preserved, promoted and communicated widely and appropriately based on the circumstances in each country. 2. Governments have a responsibility for the health of their people and should formulate national policies, regulations and standards, as part of comprehensive national health systems to ensure appropriate, safe and effective use of traditional medicine. 3. Recognizing the progress of many governments to date in integrating traditional medicine into their national health systems, those who have not yet done so are called to take action. 4. Traditional medicine should be further developed based on research and innovation in line with the Global strategy and plan of action on public health, innovation and intellectual property adopted at the Sixty-first World Health Assembly in resolution WHA61.21 in 2008. Governments, international organizations and other stakeholders should collaborate in implementing GSPA-PHI. 5. Governments should establish systems for the qualification, accreditation or licensing of traditional medicine practitioners. Traditional medicine practitioners should upgrade their knowledge and skills based on national requirements. 6. The communication between conventional and traditional medicine providers should be strengthened and appropriate training programmes be established for health professionals, medical students and relevant researchers. During the Sixty-Second World Health Assembly held on May 2009, the resolution on traditional medicine WHA62.13 was presented which urged the adoption and implementation of the Beijing Declaration on Traditional Medicine by Member States in accordance with their capacities, priorities, relevant legislation and circumstances. In the same document, the Director General was requested to give due consideration to specific actions related to traditional medicine in the implementation of the GSPA-PHI. 41 Encouraging RD in traditional medicine emphasized upon in the WHO Traditional Medicine Strategy 2014-2023.. 42 Among the strategic actions recommended for Member States are to: a. Promote RD, innovation and knowledge management; b. Encourage knowledge generation, translation and dissemination by establishing a comprehensive and inclusive approach to RD on traditional and complementary medicine TCM including quality and cost effectiveness; and c. Developing a research agenda on TCM which acknowledges and includes various types of research models where appropriate.