KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia has proposed that the World Health Organisation's Western Pacific Regional Office (WPRO) urgently pilot a pooled procurement project for selected medicines to strengthen drug security across the region.
Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad said the proposal was urgent as countries across the region faced critical challenges from supply chain disruptions, market uncertainty and heavy reliance on imported active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), with geopolitical conflicts worsening the situation.
"Regional diplomacy and solidarity today must be translated beyond mere expressions of good intentions. To protect the survival of health systems in the Western Pacific, we demand a strategic, bold shift in action focused on tangible, measurable results," he said in a Facebook post today.
Dzulkefly presented the proposal at a ministerial roundtable held in conjunction with the 77th WHO WPRO Regional Committee Meeting.
He said the pooled procurement pilot should cover selected medicines with sufficient supplier competition and clearly established shared needs, and be implemented transparently.
To support the mechanism, Dzulkefly proposed developing an Asean Medicines Security Dashboard as an early warning system linking pricing information with supply distribution, stock availability and manufacturing capacity.
He stressed that price monitoring alone could not guarantee medicine security.
Instead, he said the region needed a strategic manufacturing alliance, supported by joint investment initiatives, to address production gaps.
"To realise this major framework, it requires clear leadership from a lead country under the 2026-2030 Plan, complete with funding accountability and clear key performance indicators," he said.
At the domestic level, Dzulkefly said Malaysia had institutionalised pooled procurement across government health facilities, maintained a 3-month buffer stock of medicines and spearheaded the Asean Drug Security and Self-Reliance (ADSSR) initiative.
He added that Malaysia would continue to leverage global health diplomacy platforms to ensure uninterrupted treatment for the public.
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