WHO Member State Mechanism on Substandard and Falsified Products Discussion
Interview between the FDA’s Office of Global Policy and Strategy’s Communications Team and Dr. Paul Huleatt on the Member State Mechanism and his work as the Chair of the Mechanism’s Steering Committee.
On top of being the Chair of the Mechanism’s Steering Committee, Dr. Huleatt represents Australia and the World Health Organization (WHO) Western Pacific Region on the steering committee and is the First Secretary and Strategic Partnerships and Program Implementation Lead at the Program Implementation and Regulatory Strengthening Section in the International Regulatory Branch of the Therapeutic Goods Administration, within Australia’s Department of Health.
The WHO established the World Health Organization’s Member State Mechanism on Substandard and Falsified Medical Products in 2012 to address the crisis of substandard or falsified(SF) medical products. The estimation by WHO is that one in 10 medicines in low- and middle-income countries are substandard or falsified(SF). The Mechanism is a unique governance forum that brings together the 194 Member States of the WHO to develop strategies for mitigating the public health risk and harm caused by substandard or falsified(SF) medical products. In 11 years so far, the Mechanism has created strategies and initiatives to address this problem and still has more to contribute in order to tackle the global issues that SF medicines cause.
Find out about the Mechanism and Dr. Huleatt’s work as Chair of the Mechanism’s Steering Committee here