The Commonwealth Pharmacists Association (CPA) and Novartis partner to support pharmacists
About The Partnership
London, United Kingdom (8th November 2021). The Commonwealth Pharmacists Association (CPA) and leading global medicines company partner to support capability-building among pharmacists in lower- and middle-income resource settings.
The CPA has worked collaboratively with partner organisations for over 50 years, delivering their vision of empowering pharmacists to improve health and wellbeing throughout the Commonwealth.
This new partnership between the CPA and Novartis is another step towards progressing our shared common goal of improving access to healthcare and ensuring the quality of medicines and vaccines for patients across the globe.
The collaboration will continue to develop high quality education and training resources via the CPA’s online continuing professional development (CPD) platform. Through the platform, pharmacists are supported to develop their knowledge and skills in priority areas, enhancing their practice and the care they can provide for their communities.
The global pandemic has shone a light on pharmacists as conduits of change in all health systems. As the global health landscape continues to evolve to adapt to this rapidly changing environment, pharmacists are in an excellent position to play a critical role. Through the online CPD platform, we want to provide everyone with access to the right knowledge, training and skill set, to ensure that patients receive the best advice and treatments in a safe and effective manner.
Victoria Rutter, Executive Director at the CPA.
With a core programme of courses including Antimicrobial Stewardship, the platform will expand with further programmes that meet major global health challenges, such as tuberculosis, sickle cell disease and malaria.
The practice-based, bite-sized modules are developed by pharmacists for pharmacists, with resources tailored to local health systems, ensuring that pharmacists are able to deliver the very best care to their local communities.
The CPA’s remit covers all 54 Commonwealth countries, of which more than 20 are in Sub-Saharan Africa, with access to over 1 million pharmacists globally who are able to gain full use of the platform.
As a key player in the global health space, Novartis brings its experience and expertise across many disease areas to support this initiative, and the development and capability-building of pharmacists.
By partnering with the CPA, we are able to strengthen efforts on building skills among pharmacists, who play a key role in improving health outcomes across communities. We are excited about the potential of this partnership in addressing global health challenges, including antimicrobial resistance, that disproportionately affect people living in lower- and middle-income resource settings.
Dr. Lutz Hegemann, Group Head of Corporate Affairs & Global Health at Novartis.
About the CPA
The CPA works to support pharmacists in strengthening healthcare systems; through the safe and effective use of medicines, improving access and quality of medicines and vaccines, and the prevention of disease and promoting healthy lifestyles. Through their government channels, they are vocal advocates for improved access and quality of medicines and vaccines; embedding pharmacists at all levels of medicines management to achieve this goal.