Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley never wants to see Barbados unable to gain access to pharmaceuticals and medical equipment as occurred during the recent pandemic.
This was emphasised on Monday at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre, where Barbados received its own Biopharma White Book from Biopharma-Excellence, and simultaneously signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) in the area of technical cooperation with Rwanda’s Food and Drug Authority (FDA).
The Biopharma White Book provides a strategic roadmap for the development and growth of the pharmaceutical industry here. It is the guiding principle in the actualisation of Government’s vision for the Pharmaceutical Programme.
It is envisioned that the “White Book”, as is commonly referred to, will make a lasting impact on the nation’s healthcare landscape and position Barbados as a potential market for the manufacturing and production of Pharmaceutical Therapeutic and Health Products.
Ms. Mottley, upon receiving the White Book, remarked: “We, for too long have seen the citizens of the Global South be on the periphery of access to appropriate medical therapeutics, medical diagnostics, to systems, to equipment and… I hope that no future Prime Minister of this country and no future Government of this country will have to go through what we went through during the course of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The world knows better now and unless there is a deliberate attempt at blindness and deafness, there ought to be no repetition of what transpired between 2020 and 2022. We know what it was to have put in orders and paid, and then to be told that the equipment and the ventilators would no longer be delivered because there were export prohibitions under the laws of other countries.”
Commending the team of consultants from Biopharma-Excellence, led by Dr. Michael Pfleiderer, she shared that Barbados also knew what it was to have Ministries of Health make recommendations that Ministries of Foreign Affairs countered, in other countries, that the island assumed would have been “sympathetic, empathetic and connected”.
“We know what it is to have been told that you are simply too well off to be able to benefit from concessional prices, irrespective of the fact that your people were contracting and dying from that dreaded pandemic. We know what it is for people simply to say: ‘You’re just too small and your order accordingly is too small. And, while we want to help, we can’t guarantee it because you do not command market attention, to be seen, to be heard and to be felt’, in spite of the fact that our money was right there waiting to be delivered. So when I say that I hope that no future Prime Minister or no future government has to go through what we did, I mean it sincerely,” Ms. Mottley stressed.
Health officials and other sectoral leaders collaborating on Barbados’ Biopharma project, heard that the experience inspired the island to be determined about shaping its own future and “be firm craftsmen of our fate”.
The Prime Minister, who noted the island was aware it was small and could not do it alone, added: “But we have the capacity always to provide thoughtful leadership. We have the capacity always to embrace the ancient concepts of justice and solidarity, the principles of fairness and the principles of working together. And, it is that which has brought us safely thus far today.”
Ms. Mottley, also agreed Dr. Pfleiderer, who said; “the only thing that matters is the science, and the independence of the regulatory agency”. The Prime Minister added: “We are dealing with people’s lives and, therefore, the space and the tolerance for falling below the expected standards that sometimes is condoned in our part of the world will have to be a thing of the past. Because it is critical that there be absolute commitment to precision, independence, excellence, and going only where the science takes you, if we are to be faithful to the task that we have embarked upon here today.”
She also gave the commitment that, when established, the national regulatory agency that will be part of the project would have the same independence as the Central Bank and other entities such as the Big Data Analytics Authority.
Addressing the signing of the MOU between the Ministry of Health and Wellness and Rwanda’s FDA, PM Mottley thanked the African Union and the Africa medical supplies platform that was developed by the African Union.
She explained that as Chair of CARICOM, when the COVID-19 pandemic first exploded in the first six months of 2020, it was the African medical supplies platform that allowed Caribbean countries access to diagnostic equipment, therapeutics and vaccines at prices that were equivalent to what large countries in Africa would be able to use.