Health for Juan & Juana: Innovation and collaboration in times of pandemic

In its 4th year, the Health for Juan and Juana Forum, themed “The Innovation Imperative” put a spotlight on innovation and collaboration as the way forward in the country’s strategy to address urgent health challenges like the COVID-19 pandemic and drew insights on how Filipinos can benefit from them.

“Today, there are already eight candidate vaccines [for COVID-19] undergoing the final phase of the clinical trial and nearing FDA review,” said Dr. Beaver Tamesis, President, Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Association of the Philippines (PHAP). “This is a huge and dramatic change in the innovation for vaccines.”

The Health for Juan and Juana Forum brings the heart of the mission of PHAP to zero in on innovation.” We believe we are in a unique position to respond to this pandemic which has huge health, social, and economic repercussions,” said PHAP Executive Director Teodoro Padilla. “This forum is for the people we lost, for our patients and frontliners still battling the virus today, and those of us who continue to hope to see the end of this pandemic.”

Health innovation in action

The biopharmaceutical industry is leading the way in developing COVID-19 vaccines, treatments, and diagnostics. This research is done in collaboration with organizations and companies who have opened their libraries for researchers, scientists, and engineers to collect, study, and analyze data. “As a science-driven industry that aims to address some of the world’s biggest healthcare challenges, we have a deep sense of responsibility to respond rapidly to COVID-19,” said Mr. Thomas Cueni, Director General of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Associations (IFPMA). For Cueni, this disease has severely impacted people’s health and the global economy. “The COVID-19 pandemic is not business as usual. This is why our member companies are strongly committed to work in innovative ways, to collaborate with each other, and to enter into public and private partnerships.”

Dr. Jaime Montoya, Executive Director of the Philippine Council for Health Research and Development (PCHRD), identified eight major research areas necessary to address the COVID-19 threat to the country. These are repurposing of existing drugs and treatments; studies on COVID-19 behaviors; diagnostics and testing kit validation studies; Artificial Intelligence (AI) and information and communications technology-driven models and prediction studies; personal protective equipment (PPE) research and development; facility, laboratory and hospital equipment enhancement; and regulatory studies. Dr. Montoya presented homegrown technologies, which were developed to contain COVID-19 with funding support from the DOST-PCHRD.

Innovation in patient care is also important. The ensuing lockdown around the COVID-19 pandemic proved to be challenging for pediatric patients, cancer patients and other immunocompromised individuals. Limited access to regular treatments and a reduced supply of medicines greatly affected around 20% of cancer patients, according to Ms. Fatima Lorenzo of the Philippine Alliance of Patient Organization (PAPO).

The Universal Health Care Act was also touted to be an innovative health policy that will empower every Filipino to have access to quality health and medical care.

Governance and fiscal innovation

COVID-19 has affected many lives and has changed the way local government units craft policies and govern its people. Innovation is seen as key to help mitigate the effects of the pandemic by harnessing innovation.

Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles explained how innovation helped the current administration see that the traditional way of doing things no longer worked. As a result, innovative measures and programs were implemented to help serve the Filipino people, including RapidPass.ph, SCan Dashboard, and Relief Agad initiatives from government organizations.

Prior to the pandemic, the country had no personal protective equipment (PPE) manufacturing capability. Trade Undersecretary Rafaelita Aldaba shared how the department’s innovative policy known as “Manufacturing Repurposing Framework” gave birth to the PPE industry. Attractive repurposing incentives were also put in place to attract companies to allocate resources and materials to the new production line.

Collaboration breeds innovation

Health Undersecretary Dr. Nestor Santiago witnessed how the public and private sector collaborated to push for an improved health care sector in the country.

“COVID-19 is a teachable moment, not only did it emphasize the importance of innovators and partnerships of all sectors – scientists, doctors, engineers, managers, local government officials, tricycle drivers, students, it also highlighted the need to scale up innovations in several key areas,” Dr. Santiago said.

At the international level, Swiss Ambassador Alain Gaschen talked about the success of the Swiss government in terms of collaboration and innovation. “Gathering all relevant stakeholders from the government, private sector, the academe and working all together in a collaborative way is the best approach to find innovative solutions, particularly in the health sector. In this challenging time, we have witnessed a lot of solidarity within families, communities, societies, and between countries,” he noted.

“We have seen how vaccine development has been changing; how the private sector and the government collaborate; how the DILG (Department of Interior and Local Government can) has been in control of health-related issues,” remarked Dr. Eduardo Banzon, Asian Development Bank Principal Health Specialist.

All of these changes are part of innovation that can be applied to address the problem of mitigating COVID-19 in highly urbanized areas. These are windows of opportunity for making innovation to become permanent.

“This is a moment when we can seize the opportunity to organize the health system, particularly in resiliency and capacity-building,” said former health secretary Dr. Manuel Dayrit.

After citing moves of the Government to provide monetary reward for COVID-19 vaccine development, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said: “The best innovation that President Duterte has implemented is the Universal Healthcare itself…With UHC if implemented correctly…everyone can look forward to being afforded the right to life.”

As the Innovation Imperative webinar proved, in times of crises, innovation and collaboration will allow us to achieve a shared goal of beating the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Health for Juan and Juana: The Innovation Imperative Forum was co-organized by the Asian Institute of Management, American Chamber of Commerce, Cancer Coalition Philippines, the Department of Health, European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines, German-Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, International Federation of Pharmaceutical Industry and Associations, ISPOR Philippines Regional Chapter, Philippine Alliance of Patient Organizations, Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Association of the Philippines, PHAPCares Foundation, University of the Philippines – Universal Healthcare Study Group, US-ASEAN Business Council, Embassy of Switzerland in the Philippines, and Zuellig Family Foundation.

advt.