The governments of the BRIC economies – Brazil, Russia, India, China – as well as South Africa have agreed to establish a “technological co-operation network” to develop cheaper healthcare products.
According to a statement by the Brazilian government, the respective health ministers (vice-minister in the case of Russia) met in Beijing yesterday to discuss ways of increasing access to healthcare products and services, as a means of fostering social and economic development in the five countries.
A key element of the plans, which are yet to be discussed in greater detail later this year, will be to bring together the public and private sectors, and to establish an international health technology assessment (HTA) network as a means of ascertaining healthcare priorities, according to the Brazilian statement.
Brazilian health minister Alexandre Padilha, delivered a speech at this first “BRICS health ministers conference”, underlining Brazil’s keenness to foster stronger collaboration with medtech developers internationally. “Brazil is open to collaborating with firms in other countries in order to achieve these objectives, through a mutually-advantageous relationship,” he said.
He cited the production of a rapid and economical point-of-care HIV test, developed in collaboration with the US’s Chembio Diagnostics, as a future model of this type of collaboration.
The details of the initiative are due to be discussed further during the forthcoming United Nations general assembly, in September.
See Clinica.co.uk 12 July 2011
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