E-DRUG: HAI applauds WHO for including insulin in their prequalification programme
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Dear E-druggers
Over the past four years, Health Action International (HAI)'s ACCISS Study has looked at access to insulin issues from multiple perspectives to gain a comprehensive understanding of the insulin landscape and factors impacting access. Our objective is to increase access to affordable, quality-assured insulin for everyone in need.
It is essential that insulin products, whether originator brands or biosimilars, are quality-assured. Being a biologic, assessing insulin quality is challenging for regulatory authorities. Currently, no biosimilar human insulin products have marketing authorisation from a stringent Regulatory Authority. Therefore, we have advocated for human insulin, which is listed in WHO's Model List of Essential Medicines, be included in WHO's Prequalification of Medicines Programme.
We fully support the announcement [November 13] by WHO that human insulin will be included in their PQ programme. People who use insulin must be confident that the products they receive are quality assured. This is an important step for improving access to insulin. It should ultimately lead to greater competition and hopefully lower prices, thus improving affordability for people and health systems.
For more information on the ACCISS Study:
https://haiweb.org/projects/acciss-study/
Regards
Marg Ewen
Senior Projects Manager, Medicines Prices and co-lead investigator of the ACCISS Study
Health Action International
Margaret Ewen <marg@haiweb.org>