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About
The application of pharmaceutical sciences to the solution of global health issues has not been a front-line issue for AAPS members. This focus group brings together members who are interested in these issues, and provides opportunities to interact and to develop scientific, regulatory and social strategies. This focus group will serve as a way that global health can formally be represented at AAPS in the coming years. In 2009, an AAPS Presidential Task Force on Global Health worked to determine the ways that global health could be addressed as part of the scientific efforts and social responsibility of AAPS. As part of their work, some of the task force members founded the AAPS Pharmaceuticals in Global Health focus group. In this manner, the focus group will continue and build upon the task force's initial work
Areas of Interest
Global health issues range from the development of treatments, vaccines, and diagnostics for neglected diseases that are affect the poorest people in marginalized communities to assuring the quality and safety of active pharmaceutical ingredient and drug products that are produced and sold throughout the world. Also critical are efforts to develop vaccine formulations that are stable without a cold chain and small molecule formulations that can withstand the rigors of tropical environments. And some global health efforts include working to assure that vaccines, medicines and diagnostics that are routinely used in developed countries are available to those people living in developing countries.
To highlight one of these important areas for global health, consider the treatment of neglected global diseases. Neglected global diseases are a diverse group of infectious diseases affecting primarily the world’s poorest people in marginalized communities throughout the tropics, subtropics and parts of North America. The World Health Organization lists 13 neglected tropical diseases affecting over one billion people.
Although medically diverse, these diseases share features that allow them to persist in conditions of poverty, in remote, rural areas, urban slums or in conflict zones. With little political voice, the people affected by neglected tropical diseases have a low profile and status in public health priorities. Providing treatments for these diseases depends on education and coordination between groups such as academic research scientists, funding agencies, governments, and nongovernmental agencies. AAPS can play an important role in these efforts by providing critical programming at national and international conferences and by fostering communication between the wide range of organizations and individuals needed for the successful development and distribution of new medicines for neglected diseases.
Goals
- Advocate for the inclusion of global health topics in all AAPS activities.
- Collaborate with the affiliated (and other interested) AAPS sections and assist in planning for programming at AAPS meetings.
- Raise awareness of global health issues and provide opportunities for knowledge exchange and networking between AAPS members and members of other professional organizations.
- Promote the education and training of students as the future leaders for global health efforts.
Section affiliations: BIOTEC | CPTR | RS