Malta aimed to strengthen the collective voice of small countries when it bargains with larger pharmaceutical companies, Health Parliamentary Secretary Chris Fearne said.

He was addressing the first meeting of the Small Countries Health Information Network, recently established by the World Health Organisation (WHO). Mr Fearne is serving as the network’s first chair, and will retain the post for the next two years.

The network comprises seven other members of the WHO European Region with a population of less than 1 million people: Andorra, Cyprus, Iceland, Luxemburg, Monaco, Montenegro and San Marino.

Small countries had a huge need for data, but most had difficulties in achieving effective health data coverage due to a lack of human resources. This resulted in a lack of coordination and difficulty in monitoring health indicators on a regular basis, he said.

Mr Fearne added that data was extremely important as it enabled governments formulate policies and services according to the strengths and weaknesses of its health system.

He outlined four key priorities which Malta would be pushing forward. The first centred on streamlining the way data was collected so that it could be comparable with that of larger countries with a bigger manpower.

The network would help give a stronger voice to issues which small nations had in common but which were of little import to large countries. Such issues revolved around medical devices; small nations were usually just importers and did not have the commercial pressures and agendas of exporting countries.

The third priority centred on dealing with large pharmaceutical companies since small nations were at a disadvantage due to their small market when compared to large countries such as Germany with a stronger leverage and negotiating power.

The network would also focus on collecting whole population data, not only from an epidemiological viewpoint but also from a clinical and genetic perspective.