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

MANILA, Philippines — In its fourth year, the Health for Juan and Juana Forum put a spotlight on innovation and collaboration as the way forward in addressing urgent health challenges like the COVID-19 pandemic. Themed “The Innovation Imperative,” it also drew insights on how Filipinos can benefit from such health strategies.

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

“We believe we are in a unique position to respond to this pandemic which has huge health, social and economic repercussions. This forum is for the people we lost, for our patients and frontliners still battling the virus today, and for those of us continuing to hope to see the end of this pandemic,” said Teodoro Padilla, executive director of PHAP. 

Health innovation in action

The biopharmaceutical industry is leading the way in developing COVID-19 vaccines, treatments and diagnostics. Research is done in collaboration with organizations and companies that have opened their libraries for researchers, scientists and engineers to collect, study and analyze data.

“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,” said Thomas Cueni, director-general of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Associations.   

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 Fatima Lorenzo of the Philippine Alliance of Patient Organization.

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 governmens 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 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,” he 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, the private sector, the academe, working 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,” Gaschen noted.

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.

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.