E-DRUG: Code red: urgent need to measure access to child medicines
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Dear E-druggers,
Sufficient access to child-appropriate medicines is being neglected in the progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals. Better data collection should go hand in hand with suitable measures for monitoring access to child medicines.
We argue this in a paper published in this month's Bulletin of the WHO that resulted from collaborative work between the WHO Collaborating Centres based at UKZN, BUSPH and UU.
The full article is available here:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9511669/pdf/BLT.22.288137.pdf
Let us not forget this important group in improving the access to medicines!
Iris Joosse (i.r.joosse@uu.nl)
PhD candidate
Utrecht Institute for Pharmaceutical Sciences, Utrecht University
Abstract
Child-appropriate medicines are essential for the safe and effective treatment of children, yet we have observed a large gap in the data required to adequately monitor access to these medicines. We have examined data on the availability and pricing of child-appropriate medicines across 50 surveys. Child-appropriate medicines for nine out of 12 priority diseases in children were infrequently surveyed or not at all. A similar data deficit on age-appropriate medicines is detectable in the broader scientific literature. We also note that existing instruments for collecting data on the availability or prices of medicines are limited in their ability to generate the required data for children.
We have identified four priorities as key for improved monitoring of access to medicines for children:
(i) dedicated child medicine surveys are needed on availability and prices of child-appropriate medicines;
(ii) standardized survey instruments should include age-appropriate medicines and dosages;
(iii) health facility service readiness survey tools should include the collection of data on the price of child-appropriate medicines in addition to the availability of medicines; and
(iv) sustainable development goal indicator 3.b.3 should be modified to enable the monitoring of access to medicines for children.
These deficiencies need to be addressed to ensure the monitoring of access to child medicines as part of the sustainable development goal agenda for 2030 and to implement appropriate interventions for improving access for this vulnerable population.
Joosse IR, Mantel-Teeuwisse AK, Wirtz VJ, Suleman F, van den Ham HA. Missing data on accessibility of children's medicines. Bull World Health Organ. 2022 Oct 1;100(10):636-42. doi: 10.2471/BLT.22.288137.
Rianne van den Ham, PhD│
Assistant professor│Managing director WHO Collaborating Centre for Pharmaceutical Policy and Regulation│Division of Pharmacoepidemiology & Clinical Pharmacology│Utrecht Institute for Pharmaceutical Sciences│
David de Wiedgebouw│Universiteitsweg 99|3584 CG
Utrecht│The Netherlands│
h.a.vandenham@uu.nl