The 2024 Congress was a historic first for FIP, as it was the first time in the organisation’s 112-year history that the Congress was held in sub-Sahara Africa. FIP is the International Pharmaceutical Federation, the global body for pharmacy, of which the IPU is a member. There were over 3,000 attendees at the recent Congress, the theme of which was, ‘Innovating for the future of healthcare’.
IPU President Tom Murray and Acting Head of Professional Services, Sinéad McCool attended the Congress. Prior to the Congress, the FIP Council met over two days to receive an update on FIP activities and discuss a range of issues, including membership fees, voting rights and FIP boards.
The work of Darragh Connolly, former IPU President, was acknowledged at the opening ceremony by the award of a prestigious FIP Fellowship. Mr Connolly is currently Chair of the FIP Board of Pharmacy Practice at bureau level in FIP.
The Congress also provided an opportunity to raise awareness of the launch of the FIP campaign, ‘Think Pharmacy Think Health’. FIP has worked hard over the last number of years to raise the profile of pharmacy at an international policy level, including building on their partnership with WHO, and this resulted in FIP attending the WHO launch of World Health Day in April 2024 — this was the first time a pharmacy organisation has been invited to this event, and FIP launched the ‘Think Pharmacy Think Health’ campaign at this prestigious event. As a result of this work, a joint WHO/FIP event was held on the eve of World Pharmacist Day in September — ‘Pharmacy Care and Pharmaceutical Services’, a high-level policy symposium in Copenhagen.
Mr Murray was invited to present at the international pharmacy associations update. He provided an update that included the publication of the Expert Pharmacy Taskforce as well as an overview of the status of community pharmacy in Ireland. There were a number of other associations present, including the USA, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Germany and the UK. The themes emerging were very similar, with shortages of pharmacists, medicines shortages and a lack of core funding reported by all. ‘No money, no mission’ was quoted by many, and there was a wide-ranging discussion at this meeting. In light of the many common themes, it was agreed to continue this discussion at an online meeting later in 2024.
The Plenary session on Monday morning was given by the South African Health Minister Dr PA Motsoaledi. He described health inequality is a global issue but seen more frequently in poorer countries. He cited the lack of access to vaccines for African countries during the COVID-19 pandemic, and went on to state that healthcare is a basic human right, and work must be done to ensure this issue is actioned, via education, financial support and strategy. The advent of digital health and the innovation in this area may aid in ensuring universal healthcare for all.
He went on to inform the session that South Africa will be putting forward a proposal, via the international group of respiratory organisations, to propose global access to all inhaled medicines for the management of asthma and COPD at the WHO summit in 2024.
The IPU delegation attended a PGEU-FIP meeting to discuss the PGEU position on labelling, a review of the memorandum of understanding between the two bodies, and upcoming EU legislation. PGEU is the Pharmaceutical Group of the European Union, and is the voice of community pharmacy in Brussels. It was agreed that the two bodies should aim to meet every six months to share information and updates and ensure alignment of policy and strategy.
Topics covered at the Congress included the use of AI in pharmacy, experience of rolling-out common conditions services, building foundations for quality prescribing, vaccination updates, planetary health, data integration and interoperability, health screening and point-of-care testing.
The 2025 FIP congress will be held in Copenhagen and the theme of the Congress will be ‘Pharmacy forward: Performance, Collaboration, and Health Transformation’.
Sinéad McCool MPSI
Head of Professional Services (Acting), IPU
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