[e-drug] Vale Ernst Lauridsen

e-drug
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E-DRUG: Vale Ernst Lauridsen
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[Sadly we share the news that Dr Ernst Lauridsen passed away on 3 April. He would have been well known to many of you. Margaretha Helling-Borda pays a
tribute to Dr Lauridsen below. BS Moderator]

Dr Ernst Lauridsen, Director 1982-1988 of the WHO Action Program on
Essential Drugs (DAP), WHO Geneva

Dr Ernst Lauridsen died peacefully in Copenhagen, Denmark on 3 April 2022,
84 years old. He is mourned by his wife of more than 50 years Bente, and
his sons Mads and Rasmus, by relatives and by many friends and colleagues
around the world with whom Ernst worked during his long and outstanding
career in public health.

Ernst was born in Denmark in 1937, started working early, in shipping and
business, before studying medicine in Denmark, with specialization in
surgery, later in international and public health, at Harvard. Before
arriving at the World Health Organization in 1982, Ernst worked as Medical
Adviser to Danida, and before that during longer periods in Afghanistan,
Ethiopia, and Biafra.

In 1982, Dr Halfdan Mahler, the legendary Danish WHO Director General and
champion of primary health care, turned to Ernst for help with running the
Action Program on Essential Drugs (“Drugs” later renamed Medicines) which
had started in 1981, but did not really get off running, and had no great
action, due to many obstacles, including lack of funds.

Ernst arrived at WHO in 1982, with a one-million-dollar grant/start-up from
Danida. He came with a lot of country experience; a fresh new approach to
work with WHO member countries; a promise from Dr Mahler to report directly
to him; with a non-bureaucratic and modern leadership; and with a great
social conscience and determination to get essential medicines to those in
need.

The staff at the time of Ernst´s arrival was three persons, including
myself.

We, inside and outside the WHO, including the pharmaceutical industry,
learned quickly that we now had a different and hands on leader, with
knowledge, strategic skills, courage, and integrity.

Ernst inspired us, and we eventually became a large, enthusiastic, and very
committed group of DAP people, representing various disciplines. This
happened when the Program could expand, following the tumultuous 1984 World
Health Assembly and the subsequent, very important stakeholder meeting in
Nairobi in late 1984. In that meeting an action plan was agreed upon and
extrabudgetary funds were promised and came forth.

Ernst sent us out to the field, to countries who asked for support. We
learnt by doing, he trusted us and shared his great experience in
developing joint country programs, with Ministries of health and other
organizations. At headquarters, in workshops and seminars, guidelines were
produced, such as those for developing National Medicines Policies, Ethical
Criteria, Indicators for evaluating and measuring progress in access to
essential medicines, Therapeutic guidelines, Research methods etc. etc. The
goal of access to essential medicines to those who need them was getting a
bit closer.

Ernst was a remarkable public health person, a fighter for what he
considered was right, who with his group had a “revolutionary” aspect to
the work they wanted to do.

On a more personal note, I will add some memories I have from working and
being with Ernst.

Perhaps most importantly, professionally, Ernst told me “Don’t be afraid
to make mistakes”. I did of course make many, but at least I did not have
to “freeze” or become paralyzed, when faced with making all kinds of
difficult decisions, having a boss like that.

A memorable country visit was to Vietnam, Bhutan, and India in the 80´s.
When the flight to Vietnam from Bangkok had to return to Bangkok three
times, because of engine trouble, Ernst decided he had had enough, and we
got off just before fourth time take-off. A similar incident happened when
we flew from Calcutta to Thimphu, in Bhutan. Along the trip was Bente, and
since we all survived, we had some good laughs together. Ernst had a great
sense of humor which helped a lot in tricky situations.

I recall finally, the very interesting and fun social visits my husband and
I had with Bente and Ernst in Geneva, in Copenhagen, and in Småland ,
Sweden at the Lauridsen family country place, and not least, the last
visit to my house here outside Gothenburg, Sweden, in July 2019.

Ernst my close friend, and former wonderful boss, I will miss him so much.
May he rest in peace.

My sincere condolences to Bente, Mads and Rasmus.

Margaretha Helling-Borda,
former Director WHO Action Program on Essential
Medicines
<m.helling- <m.helling-borda@bluewin.ch>

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E-DRUG: Ernst Lauridsen (3)
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E-Druggers,
I was very sorry to hear of the death of Ernst Lauridsen, the first director of the Action Programme on Essential Drugs, that became the Essential Medicines Department. I first met him when he came out to Zimbabwe in 1987 to participate in the meeting that launched ZEDAP, the Zimbabwe Essential Drugs Action Programme. I met up with him and the team he had created at WHO Geneva over the next few years before he left WHO in 1989.

At WHO, he was a visionary who put into practice the aspirations of Halfdan Mahler to ensure essential drugs were available to all. This was one of the components of the Alma Ata Health for All Declaration. Ernst communicated his vision to an eclectic group of people from many countries and empowered them to fulfill their potentials in amazing ways.

Many of the people whom he recruited went on to spearhead the Essential Medicines movement as future directors of the EDP (Margaretha Helling-Borda, Hans Hogerzeil and Kees de Joncheere) or as WHO representatives (Pascale Brudon and Marthe Everard).

Ernst recognized the importance of communicating his vision beyond the narrow confines of health policy makers. He recruited Daphne Fresle to produce communication materials. Among these was the Essential Drugs Monitor which was a newspaper format publication with a thick green border on every page. This resource carried news stories about what countries were doing, relevant research results and some easy to understand policy articles. Working in the Essential Drugs programme in Zimbabwe, I found this to be an invaluable source of ideas and experiences. He also was responsible for my moving from a national to a global position when he recommended to Management Sciences for Health that they should recruit me to coordinate the INRUD network.

After WHO, he continued to have an impact on improving access to essential medicines. He spent a couple of years working at the World Bank (WB) where he was able to change a conventional to a progressive approach in how the WB addressed Access to Medicines in their country support programmes. He established the Eurohealth group that undertook consulting assignments for donor governments in many developing countries. I was part of a team of consultants that worked with Tanzanian counterparts in developing a 10 year Pharmaceutical sector plan for Tanzania. It was a fascinating experience for me as I saw how he coordinated a very disparate group of local and international consultants to come together to share a common purpose and to produce a product that we could all be proud of.

In 2011, Ernst participated in an event to mark thirty years of the Essential Medicines movement and to honor the retirement of Hans Hogerzeil. At this meeting, many of the initial team that Ernst had established were able to talk about their experiences and Ernst was able to talk in an unrestrained fashion of the struggles that had been faced in the early years to establish access to medicines as an essential component of WHO's work.

Having Halfdan Mahler attend this event was inspirational!

After I left WHO and moved back to Boston, I had the opportunity to visit Ernst in Copenhagen and to talk in depth with him about his experiences. As he had not written many articles or speeches that were recorded, I was interested to find out his motivations. I came to understand that his prior experiences in Afghanistan and Ethiopia had strongly influenced him. He was not willing to accept that just because people were poor that they should not have access to life saving medicines. And so he was willing to confront countries who supported their national pharmaceutical industries and to resist efforts within WHO to focus only on regulatory aspects of pharmaceuticals while neglecting access issues. I felt that he had known that he might not win every battle that he fought but that he would struggle on because some would be won. He changed the world for the better by what he did and by inspiring many people to take on the mission to ensure universal access to essential medicines.

Richard Laing
Professor International Health
Boston University School of Public Health,
"Laing, Richard" <richardl@bu.edu>