Washington DC, 22 November 2022 (PAHO)- From 7-9 November 2022 , the XIII Regional Meeting of the Health Technology Assessment Network of the Americas (RedETSA) was held in the city of Brasilia, Brazil. Representatives from 18 countries discussed the Health Technology Assessment (HTA) process at all stages of the technologies’ life cycle, in order to face the challenges of their incorporation into health systems. The event was organized in conjunction with the III Congress of the Brazilian Health Technology Assessment Network – Rebrats.

Marcelo Queiroga, Minister of Health of Brazil; Socorro Gross Galiano, Representative of the PAHO/WHO Country Office in Brazil; Sandra Barros,  Secretary of Science, Technology, Innovation and Strategic Inputs in Health; Vania Canuto,  Director of the Department of Management and Incorporation of Health Technologies; and Alexandre Lemgruber, PAHO Regional Advisor on Health Technologies Management attended the opening of the event.

During the XIII Regional Meeting, open scientific conferences were held and organized according to the different stages of health technologies’ life cycle (regulation-evaluation-incorporation-use-monitoring). A total of 311 people participated in person and 228 virtually thanks to the direct transmission of the event. For more information go to https://www.paho.org/en/news/22-11-2022-xiii-regional-meeting-health-technology-assessment-network-americas

Washington, DC, 21 December (PAHO) – In an effort to increase equitable access to COVID-19 therapeutics, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) delivered more than 11,000 vials of a medication to improve treatment for severe and critically ill COVID-19 patients in 15 Latin American and Caribbean countries.  

Countries that have received the PAHO donation of tocilizumab since mid-September are Belize, Bolivia, Dominica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Peru, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname and Venezuela. Panama expects to receive it soon. 

The drug, tocilizumab, has been shown to reduce deaths in hospitalized patients with severe or critical COVID-19, who are rapidly deteriorating or need increased levels of oxygen, and who have a significant inflammatory response.   

The purchase, worth over US$2 million, was procured by PAHO and supported by the Government of the United States. 

For more information go to https://www.paho.org/en/news/21-12-2022-paho-makes-covid-19-therapeutic-available-16-countries