Leaders Promote Bio-Medical Health Sciences, Approve Life Sciences Innovation Forum Strategic Plan
Innovation in bio-medical sciences through the Asia-Pacific region has been given a boost by APEC Leaders at their meeting in Santiago, Chile.
Following two years of preparation, APEC Leaders have endorsed the Life Sciences Innovation Forum (LSIF) Strategic Plan. This is a landmark document that aims to improve the health and well-being of citizens by encouraging investment and innovation across the key areas of research, development, manufacturing and marketing, and health services.
Chair of the APEC LSIF, Thai Minister Suwit Khunkitti, said the Life Sciences Innovation Forum Strategic Plan provides a set of best practice guidelines for use by Member Economies.
"The strategic plan will assist economies to develop an environment that attracts investment and supports innovation to promote health and well-being for our people," Minister Khunkitti said in his summary prepared for Leaders.
"Life Sciences is an important economic sector that supports innovation to better understand and overcome serious diseases in the Asia-Pacific region.
"This plan sets a priority of addressing the challenges of risk detection and prevention, as well as the treatment and cure of the communicable and life-style diseases in the region.
"The imperative for implementation of this plan has been made all the more pressing by the current focus on health priorities in the region. This is something we have factored in to the plan to ensure both a responsive and a long-term perspective on health policy."
"The APEC region is poised to take a leadership role in the Life Sciences sector and the implementation of this strategic plan will provide a model for a global approach to life sciences innovation."
The plan includes a number of groundbreaking initiatives for APEC economies, including proposals to:
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Explore the feasibility of establishing a Regional Venture Capital facility to accelerate research and development of devices, diagnostics, medicines and other treatments of diseases affecting developing economies.
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Increase information sharing among regulators in APEC Member Economies with regard to safety issues, counterfeit products and other risks.
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Build support for a major molecular diagnostics initiative to help reveal the early onset of chronic diseases and an associated large scale cohort and monitoring program to gather essential information for the assessment of risk and early disease intervention.
The concepts and principles laid out in the strategic plan will be used to develop a road-map for implementation in interested economies. As part of the plan, Thailand will host a Life Sciences Ministerial Meeting in 2005 to examine holistic approaches to life sciences innovation to better meet the health needs of the region.
The LSIF was established in response to a call by Leaders at their 2002 Meeting in Los Cabos, Mexico, to develop a strategic plan for life sciences innovation in the region. Leaders declared that "investing in health will benefit economic growth, worker performance and productivity, and poverty alleviation."
Life Sciences Innovation Forum (LSIF) Strategic Plan can be downloaded here.