A Historical Day!



28th June 2013 was a historical day for the Pharmaceutical Industry albeit a very low profile signing ceremony held at the office of the Senior Director of the Pharmaceutical Services Division (PSD), Ministry of Health (MOH), Malaysia.
 
I must thank PSD for making this possible with the signing of the MOU between MOH and IMS on the cooperation in the field of pharmaceuticals data. Indeed the Country and the stakeholders in the Pharmaceutical Industry will greatly benefit.
 
Malaysia will now have a more accurate pharmaceutical data base and both the Industry and the Government will be able to access to a common data base to derive analytic figures for measurements.
 
With this collaboration, MOH had also achieved a historical milestone in that, if I am not wrong, the collaboration with IMS, is the first Public Private Partnership not only in Malaysia but also in the region, if not globally. Congratulations to both Parties. 
 
The journey, took 2 years and 3 months, it was worth it. It began when I and the then IMS General Manager for Malaysia initiated this Project in April 2011. We strongly believed that the Country needed to have a single credible internationally accepted and respectable data source for its pharmaceutical Industry especially when the Country is in the process of its Economic Transformation Program (ETP) for National Key Economic Areas (NKEA): Healthcare. Malaysia cannot stand in a world forum and speak without such credibility.
 
We approached the Director of PEMANDU for Healthcare and then followed by a few meetings/presentations to PEMANDU and key personnel of the MOH. I was glad that the Government finally recognised the importance and the capability of IMS in supporting the ETP in this collaborative partnership. Much effort and time, also frustrations, followed in pursuing the Project to its conclusion as there were disruptions like changes in key personnel in the MOH. As they say, the rest is now history.

Personally, I also have the satisfaction in celebrating this event as since the day I joined the Industry, some 35+years back, I dreamt of having a common pharmaceutical data base where all stakeholders, including the Government be able to quote the same figures, whether be product market size, therapeutic groups etc. Today, I am glad I live to see the day.
 
 
 
 
 


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