E-DRUG: Lancet Commission on Essential Medicines Policies - in final print form
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[A lot of of important information- thanks Andy. BS]
Dear E-druggers
The report of the Lancet Commission on Essential Medicines Policies has appeared in print in this week's issue of the Lancet, together with the editorials and commentaries that were published online in November 2016. In addition, there is a piece on pharmaceutical reform in China and a book review by Brook Baker of Ellen 't Hoen's "Private Patents and Public Health: Changing Intellectual Property Rules for Access to Medicines" (see below).
The PDFs can be accessed, in full, as follows:
* Essential medicines for universal health coverage - Veronika J Wirtz, Hans V Hogerzeil, Andrew L Gray, Maryam Bigdeli, Cornelis P de Joncheere, Margaret A Ewen, Martha Gyansa-Lutterodt, Sun Jing, Vera L Luiza, Regina M Mbindyo, Helene Möller, Corrina Moucheraud, Bernard Pécoul, Lembit Rägo, Arash Rashidian, Dennis Ross-Degnan, Peter N Stephens, Yot Teerawattananon, Ellen F M 't Hoen, Anita K Wagner, Prashant Yadav, Michael R Reich - http://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140-6736(16)31599-9.pdf
* Essential medicines for universal health coverage - Pamela Das, Richard Horton - http://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140-6736(16)31907-9.pdf
* Better life through medicine—let's leave no one behind - Lilianne Ploumen, Edith Schippers - http://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140-6736(16)31905-5.pdf
* Towards access 2030 - Suzanne Hill, Marie Paule Kieny - http://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140-6736(16)31904-3.pdf
* Scaling up for universal health coverage - Andrew Witty - http://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140-6736(16)31903-1.pdf
* Youth demand action on the shared global challenge of access to medicines - Youth Commission on Essential Medicines Policies - http://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140-6736(16)31906-7.pdf
* Veronika Wirtz: global leader in improving access to medicines - Richard Lane - http://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140-6736(16)32137-7.pdf
As a reminder, these were the summarised recommendations of the Lancet Commission on Essential Medicines Policies:
- Governments and national health systems must provide adequate financing to ensure inclusion of essential medicines in the benefit packages provided by the public sector and all health insurance schemes.
- Governments and national health systems must implement policies that reduce the amount of out-of-pocket spending on medicines.
-The international community must fulfil its human rights obligations to support governments of LICs in financing a basic package of essential medicines for all, if they are unable to do so domestically.
- Governments and national health systems must invest in the capacity to accurately track expenditure on medicines, especially essential medicines, in both the public and private sectors, disaggregated between prepaid and out-of-pocket expenditure, and among important key populations.
- Governments and health systems must create and maintain information systems for routine monitoring of data on the affordability of essential medicines, as well as price and availability, in the public and private sectors.
- Governments must implement a comprehensive set of policies to achieve affordable prices for essential medicines.
- Governments and health systems must develop national capacity to create medicines benefit packages that guide procurement and reimbursement for affordable essential medicines.
- Governments, national health systems, and the pharmaceutical industry must promote transparency by sharing health and medicines information.
- Global eff orts must be made to promote the harmonisation of quality assurance eff orts through the use of an international standard regulatory dossier that covers both format and content.
- WHO should evolve the WHO/UN Prequalification Programme to maintain a moving focus on new essential medicines.
- Payers and procurement agencies must adopt good procurement practices that incorporate effective and transparent quality assurance mechanisms.
- Governments must redirect the activities of national regulatory agencies towards those that add value and reduce duplication of eff ort, and engage with a system for independent and public assessment of the performance of NMRAs.
- Regulatory agencies must encourage the involvement of other stakeholders and the general public in promoting the quality and safety of essential medicines.
- WHO and national governments must establish concrete targets and a public accountability mechanism for the performance of national regulatory authorities.
- Governments and the main public or private payers should establish independent pharmaceutical analytics units (or equivalent) to focus on generating information for action to promote quality use, in conjunction with other objectives.
- Pharmaceutical analytics units must collaborate with multiple stakeholders in all relevant systems to increase their engagement in and accountability for quality use of medicines, and to intervene jointly on medicines use problems.
- Engaged stakeholder groups, led by data produced by the pharmaceutical analytics unit, should identify and prioritise local medicines use problems, identify contributing factors across the system, and develop and implement sustainable, long-term, multi-faceted interventions.
- Governments and WHO must take international public leadership for priority setting for essential R&D, with due regard for the public health needs of LMICs.
- Governments must lead the process towards a global research and development policy framework and agreements, which include new financing mechanisms to ensure that missing essential medicines are developed and made affordable.
- The international community must create a general Essential Medicines Patent Pool.
- Governments and national stakeholders must develop and implement comprehensive national action plans to guarantee equitable access to new essential medicines.
- The pharmaceutical industry must better align its R&D priority setting with global health needs, and develop access strategies to make medically important innovations available to all in need.
Lastly, the Commission proposed a set of 24 core indicators to measure progress in the implementation of comprehensive essential medicines policies.
Regards
Andy