Is The Pharmaceutical Industry Doing Enough To Increase Access To Essential Medicines?

A report in The Lancet Global Health journal, citing the World Health Organization’s World Medicines Situation, notes that despite progress in many countries, about a third of the world’s population still has no regular access to essential medicines, and says responsibility to resolve this problem lies with many, including the pharmaceutical industry.

The Open Access article titled “Is the pharmaceutical industry improving with regard to access to essential medicines?” (The Lancet Global Health, Volume 2, Issue 3, Pages e139 – e140, March 2014 doi:10.1016/S2214-109X(13)70159-1), co-authored by Dr. Hans V. Hogerzeil, a Professor of Global Health at the Groningen University in the Netherlands) with colleagues Jayasree K. Iyer, Head of Research at the Access to Medicine Foundation, and Lisanne Urlings, Tara Prasad, and Sara Brewer of the Access to Medicine Foundation at Haarlem, Netherlands, notes that since 2008, http://www.accesstomedicineindex.ranking the Access to Medicine Index (the Index) has ranked the 20 largest research-based pharmaceutical companies according to their efforts in making relevant products more available, affordable, and accessible in developing countries. The index ranking is based on companies’ commitments and actions to provide medicines, vaccines, and diagnostic tests in 103 low-income and middle-income countries, focusing on 33 high-burden communicable, non-communicable, and neglected tropical diseases, as well as a range of maternal and neonatal disorders...