Welcome Message
It is a great pleasure to welcome you to the website of APAC (Asia Partnership Conference of Pharmaceutical Associations).
APAC is an industry-driven initiative with 13 R&D-based pharmaceutical associations joining from 11 economies in Asia that agree to work together to realize the mission; “To expedite the launch of innovative medicines for the peoples in Asia”.
Since its establishment in 2012, APAC has provided unique opportunities for constructive discussions among regulatory authorities, academia and industries on timely topics to improve “Access to Innovative Medicines” (ATIM) in Asia.
APAC working groups and task forces about " Drug Discovery Alliances (DA)," " Regulations and Approvals (RA)," and "Manufacturing, Quality Control, and Supply (MQS)" have been on active and have achieved high level of success in their efforts to promote collaboration and regulatory harmonization in each country.
Moreover, in response to technological innovation and environmental changes, we have launched the new themes of "e-labeling" group in 2020 and "Asian Universal Coverage (aUHC) " taskforce in 2021 and have started to tackle to resolve each issue from the industry's perspective.
The 12th APAC Annual Meeting was held for the first time in 4 years on April 18, 2023 in a hybrid online/ face-to-face form. More than 800 people from not only pharmaceutical associations but also regulatory authorities and academia in Asia participated.
In this Meeting, in order to realize our mission of “To expedite the launch of innovative medicines for the peoples in Asia”,
We have set forth to demonstrate tenacious power for the access to innovative healthcare by reaffirming our cooperation through the theme, “We’re all together again —Deliver tenacious power for Access to Innovative Medicine by reacting in Asia”.
Through this discussion, we have learned the necessity of promoting new technological innovations, establishing stable supply system, reliance among regulatory authorities, and regulatory agility, etc. under the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on these experiences, we were able to exchange information as well as to develop in deep discussions on the development of medical care and enhancement of access in Asian countries through the showed themes in the working groups and task forces mentioned above.
Mr. Thomas Queni, President of IFPMA (International Pharmaceuticals Manufacturers Association), also participated in this meeting and mentioned that IFPMA will further strengthen cooperation with Europe, the United States and other regional association.
We hope that the requests and proposals from the pharmaceutical industry at the Tokyo Statement of the BCR in April 2023 and the G7 Hiroshima Summit in May 2023 will lead to further cooperation with pharmaceutical associations in Asian, as a movement that will also lead to APAC discussions.
Finally, I think we were able to learn a lot of things from the COVID-19 pandemic.
One of the most important points is that it is difficult for a single country to solve a globally common issue, and we have entered a new era which we need to cooperate internationally.
We believe that the activities of APAC, which already embodies mutual country cooperation, will become important in the upcoming era in order to contribute to the health for the people of Asian countries.
We will contribute to the health of people around the world by further advancing multilateral mutually beneficial cooperation and collaboration among industry-government-academia and medical institution through the activities of APAC, and in terms of promoting innovation originating from Asia.
Hiroaki Ueno
President
Japan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association