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Global Animal Health Conference Addresses Regulatory Barriers
Global Animal Health Conference Addresses Regulatory Barriers
Dar Es Salaam, 24-25 June 2015 – The 4th Global Animal Health Conference, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and hosted by HealthforAnimals (formerly known as IFAH), takes place on 24th – 25th June 2015. Being held in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, the aim of this year’s conference is to help break down the regulatory barriers that prevent some developing countries from accessing quality veterinary medicines. These medicines are important to protect not only animal health but human health too, particularly from zoonotic and vector-borne diseases. Discussions and case studies will focus on the ultimate goal of further encouraging harmonisation of veterinary medicine regulation in compliance with international standards and guidelines leading to greater availability at a global level. This meeting will focus in particular on promoting convergence of systems for regulation of veterinary medicines in Africa, seeking to identify a model that fosters both increased access to medicines and better control of medicines once on the market. One specific objective is to further the ongoing collaboration of regional organisations within Africa with a view to mutual recognition of authorised products. The African continent is experiencing massive growth with an expected 168% increase in food demand by 2030. Production losses due to disease and untreated conditions have a negative impact on the ability of the continent to meet this increase in food demand. For instance East Coast Fever kills a cow every 30 seconds in East Africa alone. The conference is being attended by leading figures from governmental, academic, industry, and intergovernmental organisations. Over the two days these experts will share challenges and options for improving veterinary medicine regulatory convergence globally, looking in particular at Africa and its various systems, while drawing on existing models from regions such as South America, North America, Asia and the EU. HealthforAnimals Executive Director, Carel du Marchie Sarvaas comments: “The main theme of this conference is how we can enable the widest availability of high quality, safe and efficacious veterinary medicines in developing countries, with an emphasis on Africa and East Africa in particular. This topic is of particular importance currently as these countries battle a variety of zoonotic and vector-borne diseases. We need to continue the progress achieved so far in moving forward on initiatives undertaken over the last few years through the excellent collaboration between many of the partners here today. We also need to continue to work together to overcome some of the barriers to greater regulatory convergence, that would benefit all stakeholders in the area of veterinary medicines. “We hope that as a result of the conference debates, further improvements will be made in market control and market access, and that African regional organisations will continue to discuss and implement predictable science-based regulatory processes complying with intergovernmental standards.” There will also be an ancillary three hour VICH workshop before the conference starts, from 09:00 on Wednesday 24th June. VICH is an international programme aimed at harmonising technical requirement for veterinary medical product registration, which has produced 52 harmonised technical guidelines to date.
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Notes for editors
The Global Animal Health Conference 2015 Organising Committee consists of the following organisations:
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, www.gatesfoundation.org
HealthforAnimals, www.healthforanimals.org OIE, www.oie.int
European Medicines Agency, www.ema.europa.eu
US Food and Drug Administration, www.fda.gov
GALVmed, www.galvmed.org
Tanzania Food and Drugs Authority, www.tfda.or.tz
UEMOA, www.uemoa.int
DIA, www.diaglobal.org
For further press information please contact:
Charlotte Turner, press office
Tel.: +44 01273 712000
E-mail: cturner@thisispegasus.co.uk
Kim Hardie
Communications Director
Tel.: +32 2 543 75 75
E-mail: kim@healthforanimals.org