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Drug Supplies: GPHF Offers to Co-ordinate Drug Donations Project Presented to the Public in Bonn / Joint Declaration on Good Drug-Donation Practice Presented In Germany, the German Pharma Health Fund is offering to co-ordinate drug donations in urgent humanitarian emergency situations. The objective of the new drug-supply project, in cases of natural disasters, wars or comparable emergency situations resulting in an unexpected need for drugs, is to establish contact between relief organisations and/or ministries and pharmaceutical companies in a quick and unbureaucratic manner. Based on the actual needs identified by the relief organisations, the GPHP will contact those manufacturers able to effectively provide the drugs required. Thus, the relief organisations can address a central contact partner able to bundle inquiries and co-ordinate demand and supply. At the presentation of this project in the Bonn Scientific Centre in the presence of representatives of relief organisations, drug manufacturers and the media, Dr Carola Fink-Anthe, board member of the GPHF, pointed out that the new GPHF offer was to be understood as a service. Neither a drug manufacturer’s decision to donate drugs nor the decision of a relief organisation to accept them will be affected by the future GPHF offer, the only objective being to establish speedy contact between drug manufacturers and relief organisations so that any drug-donation inquiries will be channelled in a targeted and qualitative manner. In addition, Dr Fink-Anthe emphasised that the co-ordination of drug donations by the GPHF will be limited to urgent humanitarian emergency situations. The processing of inquiries for drug donations, for instance in the context of long-term development aid projects, could not be handled by the GPHF. Moreover, the relief organisations must fulfil requirements regarding their ability to appropriately ship to, and use the drugs donated in the respective region. Presentation of a Joint Declaration on Drug-Donation Practice On this occasion, Bernd Pastors, Managing Director of action medeor, also presented the declaration titled "Good Drug-Donation Practice in Germany" which was prepared last year by the GPHF in co-operation with the German Red Cross, the German Institute for Medical Mission (Deutsches Institut für Ärztliche Mission, DIFÄM) and the German Drug-Donation Organisation action medeor (Deutsches Medikamenten-Hilfswerk action medeor e.V.). In close analogy with the guidelines of the World Health Organisation, this declaration defines the standards of a good drug-donation practice as: maximum benefit for the recipients, respect of the recipient’s wishes and competencies, homogeneous quality standards, and effective communication between recipient and donor. Bernd Pastors praised the initiative taken by the GPHF and the open and fair discussions of all participants during the preparation of this Joint Declaration. On behalf of the signatories he called on other organisations to join this declaration, too. Albert Petersen of the DIFÄM drug-supply organisation called the signing of the declaration a milestone since by doing so all signatories had voluntarily undertaken to comply with high standards of drug-donation practice. He emphasised the damage caused in the past by "well-meant but badly administered" drug donations. Frequently, the drugs donated were not suitable to the specific cases and had to be disposed of at enormous cost. On behalf of the German Red Cross, Hans-Heinrich Schäfer stressed the importance of this new GPHF project and promised to channel any future drug inquiries from his organisation via the GPHF. The numerous representatives of pharmaceutical companies, too, declared that from the potential donors’ point of view the drug-supply project constitutes a valuable and helpful tool. Successful Co-ordination in Kosovo and Turkey When presenting the project, the GPHF reported that the co-ordination of drug donations during the Kosovo conflict and the 1999 earthquake in Turkey had turned out to be highly successful. At the request of the Federal Ministry of Health, the GPHF had been in a position to provide the international relief organisations with urgently needed drugs donated by its member companies and worth several million DM at short notice. These cases had shown that an intermediate agency able to centralise the specific drug demand, and to forward offers made by donors, is beneficial for all parties involved. Thus, the time-consuming research of the right contact partner within a company will in future no longer be necessary, with the gathering of information on donation inquiries being processed by a centralised agency. Forms are to Standardise and Streamline Communication Based on the experience gained in Kosovo and in Turkey, and in consultation with pharmaceutical companies and the signatories of the Joint Declaration, the GPHF has developed several forms standardising and streamlining the drug-specific communication. One form each is dedicated for a drug-donation inquiry, for a drug-supply offer and for the information to be provided by the inquiring relief organisations as to the purpose of the drugs to be donated. The inquiries and offers will be co-ordinated in the GPHF headquarters by Dr. Richard Jähnke, a pharmacist who has made a substantial contribution to the development of the entire project. As far as the most recent natural disasters in El Salvador and India are concerned, the GPHF did not receive any inquiries for drug donations from Germany since the local subsidiaries of the pharmaceutical companies in the crisis-stricken regions rapidly provided the drugs needed. All Information Additionally Available on the Internet With a view to the broadest possible publicity for the drug-supply co-ordination project, all information about this offer is available as of now on the GPHF homepage www.gphf.org. Along with the forms, the homepage also contains a detailed project description, the declaration entitled "Good Drug-Donation Practice in Germany", detailed information on the drug-donation guidelines of the World Health Organisation and some background information on the basic legal and fiscal conditions concerning drug donations as well as useful contact addresses. The objective of the "Co-ordination of drug donations in urgent humanitarian emergency situations" by the GPHF is to make a contribution to providing the victims of natural disasters, famines, wars and comparable emergency cases with drug donations in a swift, direct and appropriate manner, complying with high quality standards and in close co-operation with ministries and international relief organisations. In this connection, the GPHF emphasises that any other pharmaceutical companies which are not members of the GPHF and VFA are of course welcome to use the services provided by the "Drug-Supply" co-ordination agency. The "Drug-Supply" co-ordination agency can be contacted at the GPHF office address, Postfach 150 123, 60061 Frankfurt am Main. Telephone / Fax: 0 69 - 63 15 32 57, E-Mail: info@gphf.org.
Good Drug-Donation Practice in Germany Joint Declaration by the German Pharma Health Fund e.V.
(GPHF), the
German Red Cross (DRK), the German Institute for Medical Mission
(Deutsches Institut für Ärztliche Mission – DIFÄM) and the action
medeor German Drug-Donation Organisation Donations of drugs are made on a global level and a large scale both in cases of natural disasters and other emergency situations and in the context of regular development aid programmes. Although most of the drugs donated are of high quality and meet the specific requirements, on occasion drug supplies from a variety of sources cannot be effectively used in the crisis-stricken regions, particularly in cases of acute emergency, and these have to be disposed of at high cost. This is one of the reasons why – following an initiative of the German Pharma Health Fund e.V. (GPHF) – representatives of organisations and bodies handling drug donations in Germany have thoroughly discussed this problem complex from a German point of view on the occasion of joint discussions. The above-mentioned organisations – research-based German pharmaceutical companies, an international non-governmental relief organisation, a medical drug-supply organisation supported by the Church and acting on a global level, and a non-profit organisation co-ordinating drug supplies for developing countries and non-governmental organisations – have come to an agreement concerning drug donations. The signatories to this Joint Declaration herewith undertake...
Frankfurt am Main, in May 2000
www.gphf.org - The New GPHF Homepage on the Internet The GPHF is now presenting itself and its projects on a completely redesigned homepage www.gphf.org on the Internet. A substantial part of this homepage is dedicated to the GPHF-Minilab® and the new GPHF drug-supply project. In the context of the drug-supply project, the GPHF is offering to co-ordinate drug donations in humanitarian emergency situations. To this end, specific forms for relief organisations and donors have been developed, and these can be downloaded. Along with a detailed project description, this section contains a wealth of background information on the legal and fiscal aspects of drug donations. This offer is complemented by information on the drug donation guidelines of the World Health Organisation and many useful contact addresses. Another focus of the homepage is the GPHF-Minilab®, a portable and tropics-compatible mini-laboratory for identifying counterfeited drugs: this section contains a fact sheet including all information on the Minilab, two posters, a complete lecture on drug counterfeiting, background information on the volume of counterfeit drugs discovered and abstracts of the Minilab manuals provided by the GPHF. These manuals, as well as a video film now available in German, English, French and Spanish, can be ordered from the homepage at no cost. And the Minilab itself can now be directly ordered at www.gphf.org. The wealth of information contained on the new GPHF homepage is complemented by the presentation of the GPHF country-specific projects, an archive containing all GPHF News, and other important information on the GPHF and its objectives.
GPHF Promoting new Projects in South Africa and Russia Co-operation with German World-Population Foundation (Deutsche Stiftung Weltbevölkerung) and the Federal Ministry of Health The board of the GPHF has decided to promote two new projects in the Republic of South Africa and in Russia. In South Africa, the GPHF will co-operate with the German World-Population Foundation. This co-operation entitled "Challenge The Future" focuses on preventive measures against the high number of undesired teenage pregnancies and the HIV/AIDS pandemic. The objective of this project is to inform with a period of twelve months nearly 200,000 youngsters living in Soweto on HIV/AIDS, sexuality and contraception, and to sensitise them with a view to safe and responsible sexual behaviour. Following this first stage, the project is to be extended to other South African regions. The second new GPHF project is the first one ever scheduled in one of the successor countries of the Soviet Union. At the request of the Federal Ministry of Health, the GPHF has agreed to an urgent motion concerning the support of a project to monitor and control pulmonary tuberculosis in the Saratow Region on the Volga river. In recent years, tuberculosis in Russia has been spreading epidemically, threatening in particular underprivileged persons in many regions of the country. The GPHF project will focus on the funding of standard laboratory equipment for sputum analysis in the project area. For the purpose of this project, the GPHF has teamed up with the Federal Ministry of Health, the Foreign Office, the World Health Organisation and the Johanniter International (JOIN). A detailed presentation of both projects will be published in the next edition of the GPHF News.
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