In continuing its pursuit of establishing a network for the region, ASEAN-NDI conducted a meeting of the Task Force (TF) members held on 20 October 2011 at the Dusit Thani Hotel, Makati City, Philippines. The objective of the meeting is to discuss and agree on the framework/ initial outline of the draft ASEAN-NDI Startegic Business Plan (SBP) and the timelines for consultations/ discussions by the business development expert with the TF members. The meeting was organized to be a venue for the discussion of the SBP for ASEAN-NDI, and identification of strategies geared towards the future implementation of collaborations and partnerships within ASEAN on innovation.

The Conference was attended by Task Force (TF) members from the ASEAN Member States (Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam), a representative from the World Health Organization-Western Pacific Regional Office (WHO-WPRO), the ASEAN Network on Drugs, Diagnostics, and Vaccines Innovation (ASEAN-NDI) Secretariat and AIM business experts lead by Dr. Federico Macaranas who will develop the ASEAN-NDI Strategic Business Plan (SBP).

Dr. Macaranas concurred that there is a need for a comparative country analysis and continuous update of information in the database. The research and development landscape in Asia will start with R&D in ASEAN. He further said that gaps will be identified after knowing the objectives thus what exists and what is needed will be filled up by a gap analysis. The gap analysis will not only be about human resources but also about the availability of laboratory equipment that will be the basis for better collaboration on actual R&D. Strategic options will be cited from models of development that come from the business world. One example is the Harvard School of Public Health’s “value chain” framework. The value chain is the appropriate framework for developing the ASEAN-NDI.

Dr. Macaranas informed the panel that questionnaires will be sent out by the SBP developers to get more details to fill in the existing gaps. The questionnaire is vital in the development of the SBP and it has to be completely filled out and returned to the developers by the end of November 2011. Failure to submit the questionnaires will result to a poor SBP.

The timelines will be dependent on the Subcommittee meetings, the Committee on Science and Technology (COST) meetings, and the meetings of the heads of state and ministers. Knowing this, the SBP must be completed before the COST meeting on April/May 2012.