Pfizer, an official partner of the First World Congress on Healthy Ageing has reaffirmed the company’s commitment to promote healthy and active ageing at all stages of life as a basis for enhanced productivity in the Asia Pacific. The First World Congress on Healthy and Active Ageing will take place March 19-22, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

This symposium focused on the relationship between health and economic sustainability and the resulting challenges and opportunities of shifting demographics across the region.

“We are seeing an explosion of older populations in Asia and need to adapt our strategies to address this worrying trend,” said Theresa Firestone, regional president, Asia - Emerging Markets for Pfizer. “This is a phenomenon we cannot ignore, and Pfizer is proud to support this first-ever Congress as an important step in advancing the good work of the Malaysian Healthy Ageing Society, deepening collaboration with other key stakeholders, and developing solutions to this critical issue.”

In many societies in the Asia-Pacific region, populations are ageing at unprecedented rates – brought on by increased longevity and lower fertility rates and leading to an explosion in the size and proportion of ageing societies. For instance, Singapore, Vietnam, and China each rank among the most rapidly aging developing countries. In Singapore, the over-60 demographic segment will nearly quadruple, increasing by nearly 450 per cent between 2000 and 2050 to account for a full 38 per cent of its overall population. In Vietnam and China, the increases in percentages will be similar. Yet, for China, the world’s most populous country, this will add up to 437 million people over 60 by 2050, a number equivalent to the entire world’s elderly population in 1985. In Malaysia, the percentage of the over-60 population will increase from 8 per cent today to 20 per cent by 2050.

Pfizer’s approach to healthy and active ageing will focus on two critical areas aimed at enhancing productivity and economic sustainability as developing Asian societies age:

Promotion of healthy lifestyles to combat Non-communicable diseases (NCDs). NCDs rate of occurrence rise with age but can be lowered through healthy lifestyles. With around half of the 65+ global population living in Asia, new collaborative strategies and investments in good health and increased activity must be employed to ensure NCDs do not cripple these societies.

Creation of new care models at all stages of life. With increasingly ageing populations, healthcare systems must reinvent what it means to provide care. Governments, care providers, and businesses need to team up to explore new methods of providing care, which should include tackling communicable diseases through such tools as immunization programs to take advantage of innovations in treatment.

Speakers during Pfizer’s expert panel include: Dan Brindle, senior director of International Public Affairs and Policy, Pfizer (Asia), Antonio Dans, president, Philippine Society of General Internal Medicine and Professor, University of the Philippines College of Medicine, Department of Medicine (Philippines), Prof. Anindya Mishra, assistant professor of Sociology, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (India), Eduardo Klien, regional director, HelpAge International (Asia).

In addition, Pfizer will sponsor a workshop on March 21 focused on the importance of adult immunization, to be led by Dr Christopher Lee, head and senior consultant for the Department of Medicine and the Infectious Disease Unit at the Sungai Buloh Hospital, Malaysia in coordination with Melissa Mitchell from the Global Coalition on Aging and Dr Vicknesh Welluppillai, medical director, Pfizer Malaysia.

“The developing Asia region is at a critical juncture requiring a new and strong focus on how governments, NGOs, businesses, physicians and other innovators can come together to find solutions that promote healthy ageing,” said Assoc. Prof. Nathan Vytialingam, president of the Malaysian Healthy Ageing Society and organising chairman of the 2012 Congress. “The Congress aims to find these solutions and prompt a new way of thinking and collaborating for the future.”

Pfizer strives to set the standard for quality, safety and value in the discovery, development and manufacturing of medicines for people and animals. The diversified global health care portfolio includes human and animal biologic and small molecule medicines and vaccines, as well as nutritional products and many of the world’s best-known consumer products.