2003 Speeches
Remarks By Ambassador Frank Lavin At The 16th Annual Asia Managers Conference To The PHRMA Group
November 6, 2003
Thank you, Joe. I am delighted to be here tonight and welcome this PHRMA conference. I take particular pleasure in joining you tonight in view of my former employment. I had the opportunity to work in Hong Kong for several years, at Citibank, where I served as regional head of the Chemical/Pharmaceutical group. So it is more than a feeling of friendship when I tell you that I know your companies and I have worked with them over the years. I have worked with almost every single company in this room, from simple matters such as trade finance and payroll to more complicated undertakings such as regional hedging strategies and structured finance in China. So gatherings such as this are to me a bit of a family reunion.
I view your gathering in Singapore as a “good news” meeting. Your companies’ success is inextricably linked to the success of the region. In fact, I believe we can generalize from this and state that there is no example of a successful country that does provide the legal, commercial, and regulatory structure pharmaceutical companies need.
There might be no better example of this truism in this part of the world than Singapore. On one hand, Singapore is a successful and prosperous society, and on the other hand, Singapore offers the structure that the pharmaceutical companies need.
Philip Yeo mentioned the US-Singapore FTA. Let me take a moment here to thank PHRMA and its membership for its support during the negotiations. Your ideas, feedback, and contribution were invaluable as we worked to craft the final text. Joe, please pass my best wishes back to Alan Holmer and Judy Bello when you return to Washington.
And what was the result of your good work? The FTA reflects some key gains for PhRMA members -- the right to take legal action against parallel imports and the right to ensure marketing approval is not granted without the consent of the patent owner. Probably more important in the long term, it also provides for the recognition of biotech patents.
And this bilateral FTA is not the end of the story. This text sets standards for our other free trade negotiations, as well as for working groups in APEC and ASEAN, so we expect the good work done here to ripple through the region.
Beyond, trade, we're moving forward on a number of fronts to expand cooperation on health issues in Southeast Asia. Let me give you some examples:
President Bush was here for a visit about 2 weeks ago. A highlight of the stop here was launch of the Regional Emerging Disease Intervention Center, or REDI Center.
The REDI Center is a joint project between the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Singapore Ministry of Health and it will work on training, laboratory work, and third country collaboration in the region. It means that the U.S. Center for Disease Control and the National Institute of Health will have officers posted in Singapore.
Another initiative is the meeting later this month between the US Food and Drug Administration and the Singapore Health Science Authority. This new FDA-HSA working group was set up under the FTA. This is a promising avenue for expanding cooperation on pharmaceutical registration, testing and other issues.
The thought I want you to leave here tonight is this: Singapore is committed to the pharmaceutical industry, and the U.S. Government is committed to the pharmaceutical industry. Both governments are taking important steps in the right direction to give the pharmaceuticals every opportunity they can to be successful in Singapore. If you are contemplating a product launch in Singapore, we want to hear about it. If you are thinking about an investment or skills upgrade, we want to help you. If you have a visiting senior, we should try to sit down. If you do not have a visiting senior, you need to do a better job of communicating with your head office. If you are encountering any problems or issues, we want to hear about those as well.
In short, every company in this room has worked with PHRMA to make sure the door in Singapore is wide open. And to that end, you have been highly successful. The door is open, but at the end of the day it is up to you to walk through the door and explore the opportunities here. Please let us know how we can help.
Thank you.