About the Health & Life Sciences Committee
The US-ASEAN Business Council’s Health and Life Sciences (HLS) Committee aims to foster, in partnership with ASEAN governments and other stakeholders, sustainable models that provide access to affordable, innovative, and value-based care so that all people can lead healthy and productive lives. The HLS Committee builds active and sustained channels of engagement through the exchange of expertise and resources with partner governments and stakeholders.
What We Do
Initiatives by the committee focus on dialogue and collaboration with ASEAN governments to develop policies and build institutions that enhance each country’s respective health, life sciences and investment environments. The HLS Committee is responsive to the fact that events such as pandemics, epidemics, natural disasters and financial crises have challenged public health systems, accentuating the need to intensify dialogue and engagement with ASEAN governments at all levels level and across a range of sectors to achieve more sustainable and comprehensive health outcomes.
To achieve mutually beneficial outcomes, the HLS Committee looks to strengthen its relationship with individual ASEAN governments, the ASEAN Health Ministers Meeting, the ASEAN Senior Officials Meeting for Health Development (SOMHD), associated working groups and the ASEAN Secretariat. The Committee has participated in the ASEAN Working Group on Pharmaceutical Development (AWGPD) and the ASEAN Experts Group on Communicable Diseases (AEGCD) which both report to the ASEAN SOMHD and the ASEAN Consultative Committee on Standard and Quality (ACCSQ) Pharmaceutical Product Working Group (PPWG).
The Committee actively supports ASEAN’s Post-2015 Health Development Agenda and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and continues to convene dialogue sessions with various stakeholders in the ASEAN countries to facilitate public-private discussion and identify trends and opportunities. Members also engage with key healthcare decision makers and stakeholders through participation in the Council’s Senior Executive Business Missions, HLS Industry Missions and other Council-organized events throughout the year. The Committee continues to pursue their request for a meeting during the annual ASEAN Health Ministers Meetings.
The Committee also provides opportunities to Members as speakers and participants in regional and international forums including the Medical Device Capacity Building Workshops held prior to the ASEAN Consultative Committee on Standard and Quality (ACCSQ) Medical Device Product Working Group (MDPWG), the APEC Anti-Counterfeiting Health Products Seminars and the APEC Life Science Innovation Forum, to name a few.
The Committee is committed to building the capacity of healthcare professionals in the region through workshops and study tours facilitated by our member companies on cutting edge technologies and best industry practices. In 2018, the Committee hosted a study tour to the U.S. for Vietnam medical device regulators and conducted follow-up workshops in Hanoi. The Committee has also conducted seminars on anti-counterfeiting of medical products in Jakarta, Bangkok and Manila. These seminars brought together key stakeholders from industry, health and customs officials, ASEAN Secretariat staff, academia and the medical and health communities in each country.
The digital economy presents opportunities for the HLS industry in areas such as manufacturing, logistics, service delivery, data management, system interoperability, cybersecurity and e-payments. The Committee will leverage the strengths of its diverse membership base to support ASEAN governments in the adoption of new technologies to deliver value and efficiency for healthcare systems, providers and patients, while managing the associated challenges that come with increased data flows and cybersecurity.
The Committee believes that the health and well-being of ASEAN’s population is key to its continued prosperity. The Committee and its member companies reiterate our longstanding commitment to ASEAN and its people by providing new and essential innovative medicines, therapies and solutions, medical devices and equipment and offering expertise for capacity building, training and education.