The World Health Organization (WHO) launched on Monday a global initiative to tackle corruption in medical procurement, which leads to loss of resources and even endangers lives.

The total global market for pharmaceuticals is worth up to 50 billion U.S. dollars a year, and such a huge market is extremely vulnerable to corruption, the UN agency said.

Recent estimates showed that as much as 25 percent of medicines procured by governments can be lost to fraud, bribery and other corrupt practices, according to the agency.

Apart from the loss of resources and the danger posed to patients' lives, corrupt practices also allow the entry into the medicines chain of counterfeit and substandard products, further endangering the health of communities.

"This is an aberration when you think that poor populations struggle with the double bind of a high burden of disease and low access to medical products," said Dr. Howard Zucker, WHO assistant director-general for health technology and pharmaceuticals.

"Countries need to deal with this problem and ensure that the precious resources devoted to health are being well-spent," he added in a statement.

The initiative to assist governments was launched at a first meeting of a new WHO group of international anti-corruption and pharmaceutical experts on Monday.

One of the tasks of the new group is to compile a database of best practices and successful experiences already tried and tested in countries to promote good governance in the public pharmaceutical sector.

The WHO said that through the initiative, it wanted to promote transparency by boosting laws against corruption and fraud, establishing standardized national procedures for regulation and procurement, and training medical staff.

The corrupt practices targeted by the WHO include suppliers bribing government officials to register medicines without the required information, or officials who deliberately slow down drug approval to solicit payment from suppliers.

Favoritism in selecting members of a medicines registration committee or in recruiting regulatory staff, and thefts and embezzlement during distribution, are also included, the agency said.

"Corruption is a worldwide problem, rife in high- and low- income countries alike, and no country should feel embarrassed to talk about it," said Dr. Hans Hogerzeil, WHO director of Medicines Policy and Standards.

"Low income countries are the most vulnerable, and they are the ones we will initially support in promoting more transparent, money-saving tactics," he added.

Source: Xinhua