POPS for injection safety first meeting report

Overview

This first meeting of the POPS IS initiative hosted by the IPC unit at WHO headquarters was attended by 18 different syringe manufacturers from 12 countries. The WHO injection safety focal persons from the three pilot countries (Egypt, India and Uganda) also attended the meeting. Given that the 2015 WHO injection safety guidelines recommend switching to RUPs/SIPs by 2020, industry support will be vital in making this switch possible and viable.

The purpose of the meeting was, therefore, to promote the POPS IS initiative to the syringe manufacturing industry, to seek their input on the initiative’s sustainability and make plans for future collaboration. Manufacturers expressed their interest in the initiative and were willing to be a part of it. However, there were certain areas identified in the legal framework which will need to be addressed by the WHO headquarters team and share back with the industry representatives, who will then consult with their respective legal departments and provide feedback. A tentative timeline of the end of October 2016 was proposed as the deadline to determine whether there will be sufficient sign-up from the industry or not. The next POPS IS meeting can be tagged on to the next SIGN meeting, due to be organized in the first quarter of 2017.