Journal Article > CommentaryFull Text
BMJ Glob Health. 15 July 2022; Volume 7 (Issue 7); e009709.; DOI:10.1136/bmjgh-2022-009709
Perehudoff K, 't Hoen E, Mara K, Balasubramaniam T, Abbott F, et al.
BMJ Glob Health. 15 July 2022; Volume 7 (Issue 7); e009709.; DOI:10.1136/bmjgh-2022-009709
SUMMARY BOX
⇒ The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted how current international laws and practices fail to ensure medical countermeasures (i.e., vaccines, therapeutics, diagnostics and personal protective equipment) are
equitably distributed in a global health crisis.
⇒ In 2021, the 194 Member States of the World Health Organization agreed to begin negotiations towards an international instrument that would better position the world to prevent, respond and prepare for future pandemics (often called a ‘pandemic treaty’.)
⇒ A pandemic treaty presents an opportunity to address these challenges in international law, and craft a better system, based on solidarity, for the global development and distribution of medical countermeasures.
⇒ We recommend that a pandemic treaty ensure sufficient financing for biomedical research and development (R&D), creates conditions for licensing government-funded R&D, mandates technology transfer, shares intellectual property, data and knowledge needed for the production and supply of products, and streamlines regulatory standards and procedures to market medical countermeasures.
⇒ We also recommend that a pandemic treaty ensures greater transparency and inclusive governance of these systems.
⇒ The aim of these components in a pandemic treaty should be to craft a better collective response to global health threats, consistent with existing international law, political commitments and sound public health practice.
⇒ The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted how current international laws and practices fail to ensure medical countermeasures (i.e., vaccines, therapeutics, diagnostics and personal protective equipment) are
equitably distributed in a global health crisis.
⇒ In 2021, the 194 Member States of the World Health Organization agreed to begin negotiations towards an international instrument that would better position the world to prevent, respond and prepare for future pandemics (often called a ‘pandemic treaty’.)
⇒ A pandemic treaty presents an opportunity to address these challenges in international law, and craft a better system, based on solidarity, for the global development and distribution of medical countermeasures.
⇒ We recommend that a pandemic treaty ensure sufficient financing for biomedical research and development (R&D), creates conditions for licensing government-funded R&D, mandates technology transfer, shares intellectual property, data and knowledge needed for the production and supply of products, and streamlines regulatory standards and procedures to market medical countermeasures.
⇒ We also recommend that a pandemic treaty ensures greater transparency and inclusive governance of these systems.
⇒ The aim of these components in a pandemic treaty should be to craft a better collective response to global health threats, consistent with existing international law, political commitments and sound public health practice.
Journal Article > CommentaryFull Text
Health Aff (Millwood). 1 September 2015; Volume 34 (Issue 9); 1569-1577.; DOI:10.1377/hlthaff.2015.0375
Kishore SP, Kolappa K, Jarvis JN, Park PH, Belt R, et al.
Health Aff (Millwood). 1 September 2015; Volume 34 (Issue 9); 1569-1577.; DOI:10.1377/hlthaff.2015.0375
The modern access-to-medicines movement grew largely out of the civil-society reaction to the HIV/AIDS pandemic three decades ago. While the movement was successful with regard to HIV/AIDS medications, the increasingly urgent challenge to address access to medicines for noncommunicable diseases has lagged behind-and, in some cases, has been forgotten. In this article we first ask what causes the access gap with respect to lifesaving essential noncommunicable disease medicines and then what can be done to close the gap. Using the example of the push for access to antiretrovirals for HIV/AIDS patients for comparison, we highlight the problems of inadequate global financing and procurement for noncommunicable disease medications, intellectual property barriers and concerns raised by the pharmaceutical industry, and challenges to building stronger civil-society organizations and a patient and humanitarian response from the bottom up to demand treatment. We provide targeted policy recommendations, specific to the public sector, the private sector, and civil society, with the goal of improving access to noncommunicable disease medications globally.