All Posts Tagged With: "Access to Medicine"
PhRMA, EMHS launch pilot to improve access to medicine in Maine
EMHS, PhRMA partner to improve access to medicine in eastern Maine.
Jan 8, 2008
The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) and the Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems have launched a pilot program designed to increase patient access to important medicines throughout rural Aroosook County, Maine. The program, funded by a grant from PhRMA, will make it easier for Mainers in Aroostook County to get connected to the Partnership for Prescription Assistance, a program supported by America’s pharmaceutical research companies to help uninsured and underinsured Americans get access to medicines for free or nearly free.
Read more about PhRMA and EMHS’ pilot program to improve access to medicine in Maine.
UN health envoy calls for more access to medicine
September 20, 2007
By Laura MacInnis
GENEVA, Sept 20 (Reuters) - Improving access to medicine could save 10 million lives a year globally, a U.N. health envoy said on Thursday, recommending that drugmakers support research for neglected diseases and cut prices in poor countries.
Paul Hunt, an independent U.N. expert on the right to health, estimated that 2 billion people worldwide cannot get the essential drugs they need.
In about 50 recommendations released by the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Hunt urged drugmakers to charge less for medicines in poorer markets and allow developing states flexibility in accessing cheaper generics.
“It is time to identify what pharmaceutical companies should do to help realise the human right to medicine. How can we expect pharmaceutical companies to respect human rights if we fail to explain what they’re expected to do?” he said.
“The price of medicine in a low-income country should be less than the price of the same or equivalent medicine in a middle-income country, which should be less than the price of the same or equivalent medicine in a high-income country.”
Just 15 percent of the global population consumes more than 90 percent of the world’s pharmaceuticals, he added.
On patents, one of the most contentious issues in public health, Hunt said it was important pharmaceutical companies respect World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules and ease off lobbying for stricter patent protection in poorer states.
“The company should not extend patent duration, or file patents for new indications for existing medicines, in low-income and middle-income countries,” his guidelines said.
Read more on the need for better access to medicine.
Breakthrough in Analyzing Access to Medicine Issues: Access to Medicine Index Introduced
March 21, 2007 – Innovest Strategic Value Advisors announced today the successful completion of the first phase of one of its most innovative current projects – the creation of a global Access to Medicine (ATM) Index of major pharmaceutical companies for institutional investors.
The new Index will rate and rank the pharmaceutical companies, based on their performance and positioning on ATM issues. The project is a logical extension of Innovest’s previous work creating indexes based on companies’ performance on other “sustainability” issues such as climate change, eco-efficiency and community investment. The Index was first proposed by the Access to Medicine Foundation in the Netherlands, and Innovest has been doing the research and analysis in collaboration with the Foundation and outside experts.
“For major pharmaceutical companies, the access to medicine issue represents one of the most difficult management challenges they face”, said Andy White, Innovest’s global Managing Director of research. “We fully expect that our institutional investor clients will pay close attention to this new index as a way to gain a fuller understanding of the overall quality of management of the various companies which are in - and not in - the new Index. We commend Wim Leereveld and his team at the Access to Medicine Foundation for taking the first steps to put ATM issues squarely on the investors’ agenda. In our experience, it is a very short step from that stage to a significantly raised awareness by company CEO’s and boards, and then to improved practices. This new ATM index could become a real game-changer.”
According to the World Health Organization, approximately 30% of the world’s population – between 1.3 and 2.1 billion people lack regular access to medicine. In an effort to address the major global imbalance surrounding access to medicine (ATM), the Access to Medicine Foundation engaged Innovest to create a framework to evaluate global pharmaceutical companies on the issue.
Read more about the Access to Medicine Index.
New Alliance To Improve Access To Medicine In Developing Countries, UK
Article Date: 04 Jun 2008 - 3:00 PDT
Secretary of State for International Development (UK), Douglas Alexander, has launched a powerful new health alliance which could save the lives of 10.5 million people in developing countries each year by 2015.
International institutions, the World Health Organization, the World Bank, governments, civil society and business have joined together to form the Medicines Transparency Alliance (MeTA) to improve the health and lives of millions of people. Currently one in three people around the world still don’t have access to the basic medicines they need to fight illness and ten million children die each year for want of cheap and effective drugs.
Up to a third of medicines on the market in developing countries are fakes and a recent study published by the American Enterprise Institute found that a third of malaria drugs sold in six African cities either did not contain high enough levels of active ingredient, or did not dissolve properly.
Douglas Alexander said:
"Too many people die needlessly because they can’t get the medicines they need. There are currently 2 billion people around the world who do not have access to affordable medical services. A lot of medicines are not affordable, they are of poor quality, or they are simply not available.
"The problems of price, quality and availability can be tackled by improving transparency and access to information. MeTA will provide citizens, health care workers and others with information to challenge corruption, excessive pricing and waste. We now have a common approach and by working together millions of lives could be saved."
In Ghana, the lowest paid government worker - who still earns more than half of their fellow countrymen and women - would have to work for a week simply to afford a course of malaria treatment.
Read the rest of this article on providing access to medicine for developing countries.
New alliance to improve access to medicine in developing countries
15 May 2008
Press Release
Today, Secretary of State for International Development, Douglas Alexander, launched a powerful new health alliance which could save the lives of 10.5 million people in developing countries each year by 2015.
International institutions, the World Health Organization, the World Bank, governments, civil society and business have joined together to form the Medicines Transparency Alliance (MeTA) to improve the health and lives of millions of people. Currently one in three people around the world still don’t have access to the basic medicines they need to fight illness and ten million children die each year for want of cheap and effective drugs.
Up to a third of medicines on the market in developing countries are fakes and a recent study published by the American Enterprise Institute found that a third of malaria drugs sold in six African cities either did not contain high enough levels of active ingredient, or did not dissolve properly.
Douglas Alexander said:
“Too many people die needlessly because they can’t get the medicines they need. There are currently 2 billion people around the world who do not have access to affordable medical services. A lot of medicines are not affordable, they are of poor quality, or they are simply not available.
“The problems of price, quality and availability can be tackled by improving transparency and access to information. MeTA will provide citizens, health care workers and others with information to challenge corruption, excessive pricing and waste. We now have a common approach and by working together millions of lives could be saved.”
In Ghana, the lowest paid government worker – who still earns more than half of their fellow countrymen and women – would have to work for a week simply to afford a course of malaria treatment.
Andreas Seiter, Senior Health Specialist – Pharmaceuticals, The World Bank said:
“MeTA provides an excellent opportunity to broaden the discussion on sound pharmaceutical policies and good governance in the sector. The World Bank is looking forward to contributing to the success of MeTA, keeping in mind the ultimate goal of improving access to effective, safe and affordable medicines”.
A number of factors affect the supply of medicine in developing countries. In some cases those running healthcare systems fail to buy sufficient quantities of the right drugs, whether through lack of funding or organisation. When the right drugs are bought, there are problems distributing them to health centres and pharmacies and sometimes criminals and corrupt officials steal medicines or buy counterfeits. The effect is always the same. The poorest are hit hardest.
Dr Carissa Etienne, Assistant Director-General, WHO said:
Read the rest this press release on the new alliance creating access to medicine, Medicines Transparency Alliance (MeTA).
Dr. Orbinski’s fight for access to medicine: the DNDi Initiative
By Monica Lafon
Published: March. 16, 2009 at 1:37 PM
In 1998, Dr. James Orbinski was at a Doctors Without Borders clinic in the slum settlement of Kibera outside Nairobi, Kenya. He was part of a team offering treatment for malaria and diarrhea, and was also setting up an HIV prevention program. He sat in the clinic examining a 5-year-old girl with malaria who, after three days of standard chloroquine treatment, was still vomiting and running a fever. “Her malaria was clearly resistant to the medicine. Drug resistance is a natural phenomenon, and all infectious diseases eventually develop resistance. New drugs must constantly be found,” Orbinski recounted in his book, “An Imperfect Offering.” “Every year, worldwide, almost two million people die of malaria; 90 percent of these deaths occur in Africa, and because children have more delicate immune systems, 800,000 of those who die are children,” he wrote.
When Orbinski gave a lecture at Concordia University in Canada on “Global Health and Humanitarianism” on Sept. 25, 2008, he spoke about his experiences as president of DWB in Rwanda and about his work on HIV/AIDS, encouraging the audience to take action.
After DWB was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1999, Orbinski dedicated the money toward the development of drugs for the “neglected” diseases. This was how the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative was born. He announced the release of two new anti-malaria drugs.
In an interview, he explained that because malaria develops drug resistance, it is not simply cured with one treatment. In 1999, a public-private partnership, the Medicines for Malaria Venture, was set up to develop new drugs for malaria, but the process could take up to 10 years. “In the short term, there is an enormous need for drugs,” he said. “500 million people can’t wait for what may come.”
In his book, he explained that the Neglected Diseases Working group thought that by combining two existing anti-malaria drugs into one tablet, they might be able to develop an effective treatment in the short term.
“The problem was real and immediate, but there seemed to be no way to get anyone to do anything about it,” he said. “With no viable alternatives on the landscape, we decided to do it ourselves.”
In Oslo, when he gave his Nobel Prize address in 1999, he spoke of injustice outside the context of war. “Ninety percent of all death and suffering from infectious diseases occurred in the developing world,” he wrote in his book. “Around the world, two billion people had no access to essential medicines. Poverty is a driving force behind poor health, and that was not a problem we could solve. But as doctors, the lack of access to medicines was an injustice we could do something about.”
The fight for essential medicines was DWB’s next challenge. A global campaign was launched, drawing in more than 100 different non-governmental organizations as well as the World Health Organization. It was led by Dr. Bernard Pecoul, former general director of DWB in Paris, and Daniel Berman, a former marketing executive in the pharmaceutical industry.
In 2001, when Orbinski finished his term as DWB president, he worked as chairman of the Neglected Diseases Working Group. The question was, why was there so little drug research for diseases that affect those in the developing world?
“Returns on investment are not good enough for pharmaceutical industry and they are driven by profit,” he wrote in his book. “Governments have failed to ensure that wealth created by patent monopolies is directed towards global health needs.”
Thus DNDi was born. It was launched in 2003 as a not-for-profit pharmaceutical research and development organization that focused on four neglected diseases: sleeping sickness, chagas disease, leishmaniasis and malaria, all of which are neglected because their manifestation occurs in developing countries, where patients are too poor to attract investment for drug research.
Neglected diseases can be cured. The DNDi Web site defines malaria as the single largest cause of death for children under 5 in Africa, killing one child every 30 seconds, or 3,000 children every day.
A group of 40 scientists, drug policy analysts and drug development specialists as well as the WHO got involved in the DNDi. They surveyed the top 20 pharmaceutical companies in the world with Harvard University, and found that among the 11 companies that responded, eight spent nothing on research and development for diseases like African sleeping sickness.
They also found that only 0.2 percent of the $60 billion spent globally every year on drug research and development went towards tuberculosis, malaria and other diseases, which account for 18 percent of global mortality from all diseases.
Over the course of two years, they established a network of 15 African research centers linked with DWB, the Pasteur Institute and medical research councils in India, Malaysia, Brazil and South Africa.
Read the rest of this article on Dr. Orbinski’s access to medicine fight.
PhRMA CEO Billy Tauzin on Access to Medicine in West Virginia
Pharmaceutical companies are working every day to find new cures and treatments for society’s greatest health problems. As a cancer survivor, I understand that there is nothing more precious than your health and the health of loved ones. And I am here to tell you that without prescription medicines, the health of far too many would be in worse shape.
If you read nothing about the industry but various press accounts, however, you might mistakenly come away with the belief that America’s pharmaceutical research companies do nothing but lobby and create advertisements. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
West Virginians are right to review the issues surrounding the access and affordability of prescription medicines. These medicines are important elements of modern healthcare and yes, there are some among us who need help affording these treatments. America is the world’s leader in developing new medicines, but pharmaceutical companies know it is not enough to find and develop new medicines – as hard as that job may be. We must also help those in need afford them too.
You should know these facts:
Prescription drug spending is just over 10-cents of the total healthcare dollar. Elected officials looking to save money on healthcare tend to focus on prescription drugs but how can serious reductions in total healthcare spending be made when you narrow your focus to 10.5 percent of spending?
The appropriate use of prescription drugs helps lower overall healthcare spending. This is just common sense: It is far cheaper and leads to better healthcare to prevent heart attacks and strokes, for example, through the appropriate use of medicines than it is to pay for the in-hospital treatments including surgeries and rehabilitation that will likely come when medicines are denied.
There are significant programs available today to help those in need with their drug costs, programs that have received scant attention by this newspaper. There are more than 475 public and private programs available to help the uninsured or those with low-incomes. RxforWV (www.rxforwv.org or 1-877-WVA-Rx4u) has matched more than 43,822 West Virginians to programs offering discounted or even free medicines. Additionally, the prescription drug industry provided $55 million dollars worth of products to West Virginia’s free clinics between 2004 and 2005, including the Charleston based Health Right clinic at no cost, helping more than 49,000 West Virginians receive the prescription drugs they need. This is real help for real people.
The fundamental problems plaguing West Virginia healthcare are far broader than issues surrounding prescription drug coverage. They include improving access to health insurance for the more than 270,000 uninsured – about 16 percent of the state’s population – because you cannot get a medicine if you can’t see a doctor to get the prescription in the first place. The state must continue with its emerging efforts to address the core health problems of obesity – across all age groups – and the need for better health education. West Virginia is to be commended for recognizing that it must improve the quality of its community health.
Read the rest of this article on what the pharmaceutical industry is doing to help increase access to medicine .
Opinion: When Is a Pandemic Not a Pandemic?
The World Health Organization has backed itself into a corner on its Pandemic Influenza Phases system and the so-called swine flu. WHO knows it and is working on bureaucratic escape routes. But the real problem is what these alert systems mean for national governments that have detailed pandemic response plans — particularly the United States.
Read the rest of this article here .
Esther’s Story: Improving the odds in the struggle against TB, HIV/AIDS and Malaria
The African Medical and Research Foundation (AMREF) Malaria, HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis (MAT) program works with healthcare staff in Luwero, Uganda, to sensitize local communities on health issues. AMREF provides training and transport to health center staff, and in some cases provides allowances for lunch while staff are in the field. Without this kind of support, healthcare staff members – like Ester Nakamya - are unable to do their work and reach people in their communities.
Read Ester’s story:
I have been working in Luwero as a health assistant since 2000. One day, in one of our usual staff meetings at Kasana Health Center in Luwero town, an organization called AMREF was introduced to the health workers present. We were told AMREF had come to support us to deliver better health services in our district. I could see the enthusiasm of the chairperson of the meeting, who urged us to work closely with and tap whatever benefit we could from AMREF. We badly needed health partners as the district was overstretched with health issues and yet the funding and other capacities to handle were still inadequate. I left the meeting wondering how I was to benefit from AMREF’s involvement as an individual, since I too had challenges in meeting my job expectations.
My role as a health assistant is to mobilize people and educate them about health issues, specifically tuberculosis (TB). I encourage patients to go for TB tests, and if one is diagnosed with TB, I am supposed to follow up with them to ensure that they take and complete the full course of medicine that was prescribed to them. I also visit TB patients; I counsel them, transport drugs to them, and sensitize community members on how to reduce the stigma related to the disease.
I was working in 57 villages , following up with patients and transporting drugs. The only transportation I could afford at that time was a bicycle, which sometimes meant that patients who were unable to pick up their drugs did not have them when they needed them. Also, without my coaching, some other patients would get tired of swallowing the big tablets twice a day for about 60 days and would miss taking them. Both of these scenarios pose challenges to recovery from the disease.
Read the rest of this story about access to medicine here.
Global Health Progress Response to President Obama’s $63 billion commitment to fighting global disease
WASHINGTON, D.C. – May 6, 2009 – Christopher Singer, President, International, at the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), founding member of the Global Health Progress initiative, released the following statement regarding President Obama’s announcement that the administration will work to commit $63 billion over the next six years to fight global illness and disease:
“The world shares the burden of global disease, and we thank President Obama for making a significant commitment towards reaching the Millennium Development Goals and positively impacting health around the world. The White House’s announcement is a welcome sign to world leaders, national and international healthcare agencies, NGOs, foundations and the public and private sector, who are all partners in treating, preventing and fighting global diseases.
Read the rest of this press release on access to medicine here.