Brunei ministry of health to draft national medicine policy

In line with the World Health Organization (WHO)'s mission to formulate a comprehensive National Medicine Policy for each country, Brunei's Ministry of Health has acknowledged the importance of such policy and grouped relevant stakeholders to work on this policy for the next few days, an official from the Brunei's Ministry of Health said on Monday. A group of industry related stakeholders from the government and private sector, academia, pharmaceutical industry, consumer and patient representatives were called upon to work on this National Medicine Policy. "It is acknowledged that without a formal policy document on pharmaceuticals, there may be no general overview of what is needed," stressed Datin Dr Hjh Norlila binti Dato Hj Abd Jalil, Permanent Secretary at Ministry of Health at her opening speech at the Stakeholder Consultation meeting. "As a consequence, some of our government measures may conflict with others, because the various goals and responsibilities are not clearly defined and understood. Hence, the importance of this consultation meeting is to finalize our draft National Medicines Policy," Datin Dr Hjh Norlila added.