Examples of organizations with whom we have ongoing relationships includeing:
- The US Government (USG)
- Office of the US Global AIDS Coordinator (OGAC )
- US Agency for International Development (USAID)
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
- Department of Defense (DOD)
- PEPFAR Track 1 Partners
- Columbia University (CU), International Center for AIDS Care and Treatment Programs- Catholic Relief Services/AIDS Relief (CRS)
- Harvard University/ School of Public Health, University of Maryland and The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation.
- The Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM)
- UNAIDS
- UNITAID
- World Bank
- World Health Organization (WHO)
- Clinton Health Access initiative (CHAI)
- The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
- The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)
- Ecumenical Pharmaceutical Network (EPN)
- Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs), including faith-based drug supply organizations – (DSOs) – i.e., World Vision, Mission for Essential Drugs and Supplies (MEDS), Christian Health Association of Zambia (CHAZ), Christian Health Association of Nigeria (CHAN)/CHANPharm.
- Department For International Development, UK (DFID)
Collaboration takes many different forms; from sharing information and data to coordinating activities and plans to implementing common projects. Particularly important is work on new prevention initiatives such as early infant diagnosis (EID), male circumcision, microbicides and "treatment as prevention." Below are some examples of past and ongoing collaborations between SCMS and key stakeholders.
In East Africa, supporting a harmonized approach to medicines registration
SCMS's country director for Tanzania represents SCMS in the East African Community Medicines Registration Harmonization (EAC MRH) Project. Launched in March 2012, the EAC MRH project is a partnership of many regional and global partners, including the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), the East African Community, WHO, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the World Bank, DFID, and CHAI. According to the project, “The EAC MRH Project will promote the harmonization of medicines registration in the region, which is a key contributor to public health and leads to rapid access to good quality, safe and effective medicines for priority diseases…. Partners hope that the successful implementation of the EAC project will serve as a beacon for other countries and regions to realize the benefits of harmonized regulations for their populations.” For more information go to www.amrh.org and www.nepad.org
Donor collaoration to improve procurement planning
To ensure an uninterrupted supply of essential medicines and other health commodities, coordinated procurement planning by donors and governments is critical. In June 2006, the Global Fund, World Bank and USG made a commitment to coordinate national-level antiretroviral (ARV) procurement plans, starting in Ethiopia, Guyana, Haiti, Mozambique, Rwanda and Vietnam. This Coordinated Procurement Planning (CPP) initiative built on existing systems and mechanisms under country leadership to develop a robust approach to country coordination. SCMS serves as CPP technical secretariat, facilitating operations of the procurement working group. As a major donor of HIV/AIDS commodities, UNITAID has recently joined the initiative, as have WHO, CHAI and UNICEF. The initiative is now focused on international-level coordination between donors and major procurement and supply management organizations. To support this international focus as well as donor objectives, SCMS is working with CHAI, Global Fund and UNICEF in identifying funding gaps and other supply challenges. The most immediate focus is on the risk of ARV stockout, but we expect to move on to include other key HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis commodities.
Public-private partnership to address treatment needs of children with HIV/AIDS
The needs and challenges for children with HIV/AIDS are different than those of adults. The Pediatric AIDS Public-Private Partnership, designed to address childrens’ unique treatment needs, was developed in response to a call for action by Mrs. Laura Bush when she was First Lady. Under the leadership of OGAC, the partnership includes the US government, pharmaceutical companies, UNAIDS, UNICEF, WHO, the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation and the Clinton Foundation. SCMS developed standardized procedures to generate a replicable forecast and prepared a selective forecast of pediatric ARV demand for 2007 and 2008 in 11 of the PEPFAR focus countries plus Zimbabwe. Under an initiative known as Pre-Approval Access to Therapies for HIV/AIDS (PaATH), we are working to pilot new ways to speed up registration of new pediatric products by drug regulatory authorities in developing countries
WHO/UNAIDS working group on ARV forecasting for global demand
SCMS is a member of this working group which develops ARV forecasts based on different methods and consolidates resulting forecasts of ARV demand from WHO and UNAIDS's Annual Survey of Demand, CHAI, and our own forecasts for PEPFAR. The working group’s objective is to prepare global forecasts of demand that can be shared with major manufacturers of innovator and generic ARVs, as well as active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) producers. These forecasts help suppliers estimate demand and plan investments, ensuring that adequate manufacturing capacity is in place as programs scale up.
AIDS Medicines and Diagnostic Services (AMDS) Network to support procurement and supply chain management of HIV commodities
SCMS is a member of the AMDS Network in the WHO AIDS Department. The network’s goal is to collate and provide information and tools that support the consistent supply of commodities for the prevention, treatment and care of HIV/AIDS. In addition to working closely with WHO to support the work of AMDS, SCMS provides procurement data for the WHO Global Price Reporting Mechanism and ARV registration status information for the WHO regulatory database. We also support other AMDS initiatives and activities, including the Procurement and Supply Management (PSM) toolbox, as well as development of key indicators for the monitoring and evaluation of PSM systems.
Collaboration with Global Fund in procurement and forecastingIn Côte d’Ivoire and Ethiopia, SCMS has acted as a procurement agent for Global Fund Principal Recipients, helping to ensure the continuous availability of HIV/AIDS-related commodities at the national level. In Côte d’Ivoire, with the support of PEPFAR and USAID, we responded quickly to Global Fund needs in 2007 and 2008, preventing stockouts and managing the pipeline of orders to address the expansion of new patients into the treatment program. In Ethiopia, we supported the development of a six-year national forecast for all essential HIV/AIDS commodities, which has been used for Ethiopia’s Global Fund Round 7 application. Quantification results were also used to procure a one-year supply of HIV rapid test kits through SCMS with funding from the Global Fund.
Collaboration with Track 1.0 meeting scale-up targets of treatment and care programs
On behalf of PEPFAR, the Track 1.0 program’s mission is to fast-track initiation of ART in the focus countries to meet scale-up targets of treatment and care programs. Track 1.0 partners included Harvard University School of Public Health, Columbia University International Center for AIDS Care and Treatment Programs, The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, and Catholic Relief Services. PFSCM partnered with these programs in several PEPFAR focus countries, including Zambia, Côte d’ Ivoire and Tanzania, in aggregation of ARV forecasting and in procurement. SCMS procures ARVs, opportunistic infection drugs, and laboratory products under IQC contracts, which had allowed these programs to use all of PFSCM’s services outside of country-specific US government funding.
Collaboration with CHAI and USAID | DELIVER in developing a laboratory quantification tool
To support the growing numbers of patients on ARV treatment, the need for laboratory commodities has rapidly increased. However, inadequate lab supply chains and tools for forecasting lab equipment have led to inadequate data and challenges in planning and scale-up. In October 2007, SCMS and CHAI signed a memorandum of understanding to develop a new laboratory forecasting tool using Microsoft Excel. Representatives from SCMS, USAID | DELIVER PROJECT and CHAI assessed various tools and agreed to develop a new tool with the following characteristics:
- Flexible - can accomodate data morbidity of types multiple accommodate can
- Easy to use – is not complicated in its layout and presentation
- Capable of capacity building – can be used in the field for training exercises
- Robust – can take into account as much detail as possible
CHAI undertook tool development addressing the following areas: CD4 tests, hematology, clinical chemistry, viral load and early infant diagnosis—commodities that account for about 80 percent of lab commodities procured by SCMS.
The ultimate aim is for SCMS, CHAI and USAID | DELIVER PROJECT to continue to share the tool with others, including government agencies and PEPFAR implementing partners.
Collaboraton with Delivery Working Group of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation supported initiative to research potential of Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis
The Gates Foundation is providing substantial funding to support development of new prevention technologies, including pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP)—the use of ARV drugs by HIV-negative individuals in highly at risk communities to prevent HIV virus transmission. Based on our experience in developing the SCMS international supply chain, SCSM is assisting the PrEP project’s Delivery Working Group. Our goal is to address issues faced in making the new products readily available, should current research projects establish that PrEP is effective and donors support the funding of a substantive international PrEP program. .
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