E-DRUG: NDP Conference in Australia started

Dear E-Druggers,

In the coming 2 weeks, three conferences will be held in Australia on the
question of National Drug policies.

The official NDP Conference will be held 8-11 October under the theme "Can
comprehensive National Medicinal Drug Policies be implemented effectively to
meet both health and economic needs?"
Four topics will be discussed in separate working groups:
- Access to medicines
- Rational Drug Use
- Quality, safety and efficacy of medicines
- Local industry

The Asian HAI Network (ARDA) is organising a satellite conference 4-7 October on
4 topics:
- Economic, commercial and technological development of the pharmaceutical
sector in the Asia Pacific region;
- Drug Pricing Policies;
- National Drug Policies and Drug Legislation;
- Regional cooperation: sharing of information.

Finally, the INRUD Network of Asia is meeting 4-6 October in Newcastle on 5
topics:
- training and education
- research methods
- economic analysis and drug use
- communicating with policy makers
- relations with industry

If you have any strong feelings on any of the above issues, why not participate
by email? Both the HAI/ARDA and INRUD conference are going to demonstrate email
as a communications tool for NDP and rational use activities. Please send your
submissions to: 73377.3055@compuserve.com
and I will make sure they'll get to the discussion groups.
We will try to use the eventual answers in the email practicals we are setting
up.

Wilbert Bannenberg

Dear friends,

I was happy to read the article on the recent NDP meeting in Sydney,
Australia in the Lancet (October 21, 1995 Vol. 346, p.1092) by my
'friend' Philippa Saunders of the Essential Drugs Project in London. It
would be useful to hear from other participants of one or all of the
three meetings (1. ARDA 2. INRUD and 3. NDP) on their thoughts and
reflections on the meeting (s). Also does any one know if the proceedings
of the NDP meeting will be published? Thanks in advance for sharing.
               
Syed Rizwanuddin Ahmad
Researcher
Drug Safety, Education and Information
3831 Beecher Street, NW
Washington, DC 20007-1802, USA
Phone/Fax:1-202-965-1518
Email: srahmad@essential.org