The Europharm Forum — the co-operative venture by the World Health Organisation and national pharmacy organisations within Europe — is to be copied in the WHO’s Americas region.
The establishment of a pharmacy forum for the New World was announced at a meeting of the council of the International Pharmaceutical Federation on September 5 in Barcelona. The FIP president (Mr Peter Kielgast) said that the new forum was to be established soon and would be based in Washington DC, United States.
Mr Kielgast said that one of the FIP’s aims was to see the Europharm Forum concept expanded into all the other WHO regions — the Americas, the Mediterranean and Middle East, Africa, Asia, and the Western Pacific.
Mr John Ware (Australia), who is the FIP representative to the WHO’s Western Pacific region, told the council that he hoped that his region would shortly be able to support a similar structure. A recent change of WHO regional director could lead to progress.
Mr Peter Rollason (Zimbabwe), who represents the FIP in the WHO Africa region, said that his main difficulty in promoting a pharmacy forum for Africa had been poor communications with the WHO regional office. However, a decision to move the WHO office to Zimbabwe had improved prospects of progress.