WHO

By John Wiernikowski, ISOPP Advocacy Task Force Chair

After last years participation in a Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) sponsored program on Impact of Drug Shortages and Quality on Patients with cancer in which ISOPP members Bo Yu (China); Irene Weru (Kenya) and Annemeri Livinalli (Brazil) participated; our activity (not by choice) took a downturn.

 

The COVID-19 pandemic predictably put the activities of many organizations involved in international health either on temporary hold or re-focused on more immediate health care systems/facility planning for patients with and without malignant disease. The activity of the WHO Essential Medicines List (EML) Secretariat were one of those notably affected.  Now that the pandemic is (albeit far from over) slowly coming under control, some of these activities are re-initiating.  ISOPP (via this Task Force) has been recently invited to participate in a number of these activities.  

 

ISOPP has been invited to collaborate in the creation of the Handbook, which as a first step, will commence with generation of an initial set of 4 of these Treatment Regimens.  What WHO is asking for from ISOPP is to provide feedback from the point of view of an Oncology Pharmacist on the feasibility/practicality/challenges and pitfalls of implementing and delivering these chemotherapy regimens in the Low and Middle Income Country (LMIC) context.  

 
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