PHARMACEUTICAL inequity has been an age-old phenomenon that restricted developing countries from accessing medicines, mainly due to a lack of political will, financial resources and infrastructural sustainability. It was well established that more powerful economies called the shots by imposing regulations on global trade, protected by patents, laws and trade agreements.
According to the Access Medicines Foundation, 83 percent of low-and middle-income countries equating to billions of persons are denied essential medicines and healthcare products for non-communicable and infectious diseases, due to more lucrative options for the pharmaceutical manufacturers.
Even within developed countries such as Canada it was found that one in five persons may receive limited treatment due to their inability to attain health insurance, a mandatory requirement for accessing healthcare coverage.
In an effort to close the gap between the privileged and the under-privileged and to provide this essential pharmaceutical good to supply the global human capital, a macro-framework involving the collaboration of governments, the World Health Organization, United Nations and key partnerships from multi-stakeholders, including civil society, was required to focus on areas such as big pharma, generic and vaccines manufacturers.
The Pharmaceutical Equity for Global Public Health initiative was launched in November 2022 and was signed off by leaders of some developing countries, referred to as the South-South communique. The aim was to remove barriers and level the playing field, so that effective life-saving medicines can be made available at affordable cost. The vision is that by 2040, the next 17 years, 60 percent of the needs in the oncology, vaccines, and women’s health products would be freely accessible. This has been signed off by Guyana, Barbados and Rwanda, with an open invitation to others in the Caribbean, Latin America and South Africa.
The COVID-19 pandemic had triggered this ground-breaking initiative, since developing nations were literally at the mercy of their richer counterparts who stockpiled excessive quantities of vaccines for reservation, leaving none available for less-resourced countries.
One of our neighbouring countries in the South showed unmatched leadership in medicine development. Cuba stood tall during the challenging times of the pandemic and forged ahead to develop their own vaccines, instead of queuing for this scarce, life-preserving commodity where demand exceeded supply.
The COVID-19 statistics highlighted the disparities which can be used to extrapolate for other healthcare demands. These stats provided by the World Health Organization justified the need for pharmaceutical equity, since the actual numbers of persons vaccinated as at March 2022 was 74 percent in high-income countries, compared to 12 percent in their poorer counterparts.
Additionally, further research in other areas supported this initiative, where according to the Department of Public Information, 69 percent of new tuberculosis cases were found in South-East Asia and Africa, and 70 percent of deaths due to cancer in 2020 were in low- and middle-income countries. Additionally, it was noted that life expectancy in developing countries was not high, where fewer than 25 percent of persons live to age 70.
However, it is noteworthy that the five primary drivers to medicine access, according to PHARMAC New Zealand are:
* Medicine availability – all eligible candidates should access medicine required
* Medicine accessibility – protocols in place to prevent barriers such as prescribers and dispensers
* Medicine affordability – reducing cost barriers to the most vulnerable patients
* Medicine acceptability – engage patients to trust and accept medicine
* Medicine appropriateness – protocol to ensure adequate and quality of prescribing
In pursuing pharmaceutical equity for such a unique global framework, the watch words are quality control and pharmacovigilance to prevent counterfeit from infiltrating the system and defeating the entire purpose of the initiative. It was recommended that the manufacturing sites should be fully compliant with the relevant details of COP 21 Paris agreement.
For further discussion, contact the pharmacist of Medicine Express PHARMACY located at 223 Camp Street, between Lamaha and New Market Streets. If you have any queries, comments or further information on the above topic kindly forward them to medicine.express@gmail.com or send them to 223 Camp Street, N/burg. Tel #225-5142.
