E-DRUG: Article about Industry led Access to Medicines Initiatives now available
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Hi E-Druggers,
Health Affairs article about Industry led Access to Medicines Initiatives now available on the Web
Last week there was an E-Drug message about the article that our group at Boston University School of Public Health had written in the journal Health Affairs about pharmaceutical industry access to medicines initiatives.
The reference is Health Aff April 2017 vol. 36 no. 4 706-713 but unfortunately only the abstract was available on line.
We have now paid to have the full article on line for six months. So if you go to
http://sites.bu.edu/evaluatingaccess-accessaccelerated/health-affairs/
and go to the bottom of the page you can download the article. The abstract is below. We welcome your comments.
Regards
Richard Laing
Professor, Department of Global Health
Boston University School of Public Health,
801 Massachusetts Avenue Boston MA 02118
Tel 617 414 1445 (Office) 617 435 7860 (Mobile)
E mail richardl@bu.edu
THINK. TEACH. DO.
FOR THE HEALTH OF ALL.
Industry-Led Access-To-Medicines Initiatives In Low- And Middle-Income Countries: Strategies And Evidence
Peter C. Rockers, Veronika J. Wirtz, Chukwuemeka A. Umeh, Preethi M. Swamy, and Richard O. Laing
Abstract
Global biopharmaceutical companies are increasingly establishing access-to-medicines (AtM) initiatives in low- and middle-income countries. We reviewed the initiatives of twenty-one research-based global biopharmaceutical companies to assess their strategies for improving access and the quality of evidence on the impact of their initiatives. The number of operating initiatives increased from 17 in 2000 to 102 in 2015. Of the 120 different AtM initiatives identified, 48 percent used a medicine donation strategy, and 44 percent used a price reduction strategy.
While companies have frequently claimed that their initiatives have had positive impacts, we found published evaluations for only seven initiatives, and nearly all of the evaluations were of low (62 percent) or very low (32 percent) quality. It is clear that the biopharmaceutical industry has increased its commitment to improving access to medicines in low- and middle-income countries. However, companies should do more to generate high-quality evidence on their initiatives, and the global health community should do more to assist the developing of evidence about the initiatives.