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Pharmacy organisations have signed up to provide medicines to areas in need of humanitarian relief, the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) has announced.
In an announcement published on 3 September 2024, FIP said organisations had signed up to its ‘Medicines to…’ initiative, which is part of its wider HumanityRx programme, aimed at helping to raise funds for medicines in regions affected by emergencies and disasters.
“Following the success of the ‘Medicines to Ukraine‘ model initiated by the European Association of Employed Community Pharmacists in Europe, the FIP Council ratified a proposal by the Pharmacists’ Defence Association (PDA) for work on similar schemes,” the announcement said.
Medicines to Ukraine, which launched in 2022 and is ongoing, has raised more than £4.5m for medicines.
At the ‘Medicines to Gaza’ campaign launch event — presented by the PDA at the FIP Congress in Cape Town, South Africa, on 3 September 2024 — a signing ceremony took place, during which various pharmacy organisations from several countries confirmed their agreement to participate in the campaign.
These included the PDA, the Egyptian Organisation for Pharmacy, the Jordan Pharmacists’ Association, the Malaysian Pharmacists’ Society, the Medicines to Africa Campaign — South Africa, and the Order of Pharmacists of Lebanon.
The PDA confirmed to The Pharmaceutical Journal that no other UK organisations have yet signed up to the initiative but are invited to do so.
Speaking at the launch, Mark Koziol, chair of the PDA, said: “There are a lot of bad things happening in the world, and today is an opportunity for pharmacists to do something good.”
Salah Shubair, a board member of the Jordan Pharmacists’ Association, commented: “This collaboration underscores our shared humanity and our collective professional and ethical responsibilities to support communities torn by humanitarian crises.”
In its announcement of the Gaza campaign, published on 4 September 2024, the PDA said: “Over the next few weeks, posters appealing for donations from members of the public will be appearing in pharmacy windows and other locations.”
Speaking on The PJ Pod in April 2024 about the Medicines to Ukraine campaign, Koziol said: “We have lots and lots of community pharmacies, we have hospital pharmacies … we have GP practices — places where we can display posters that members of the public can read.
“Now, we all know that in primary care, in community pharmacy in the UK, more members of the public go into a community pharmacy each week than the rest of primary care put together. That’s a really great place to get a message out to the public.
“A poster in the window that says, in this case ‘medicines to Ukraine’ — but it could be medicines to Palestine, medicines to Syria, medicines to wherever there is an international crisis — is read by millions of people.”
At the FIP ceremony, other international pharmacy organisations also signed up to support a ‘Medicines to Africa’ campaign.
