Friday, September 5, 2008

[EQ] UN report finds gaps in access to essential medicines

Delivering on the Global Partnerships for Achieving the Millennium Development 8

United Nations, New York - 4 September 2008
MDG Gap Task Force Report 2008

Available online full text at:

Arabic [pdf 1.56Mb]    | Chinese [pdf 2.02Mb]
English [pdf 1.67Mb]  | French [pdf 1.42Mb]
Russian [pdf 1.45Mb] | Spanish [pdf 1.56Mb]

“…..The UN report Delivering on the Global Partnerships for Achieving the Millennium Development Goals highlights the existence of large gaps in the availability of medicines in both the public and private sectors, as well as a wide variation in prices which render essential medicines unaffordable to poor people.

Launched on September 4th by the UN Secretary-General, the report describes progress towards achieving MDG 8 (Develop a global partnership for development) and its related targets in the areas of essential medicines, official development assistance, trade, external debt and technology.

MDG 8, Target 8.E: In cooperation with pharmaceutical companies, provide access to affordable essential medicines in developing countries was measured using nine indicators for measuring access to medicines using data collected by WHO and its partners. The report found that in the public sector, generic medicines are only available in 34.9% of facilities, and on average cost 250% more than the international reference price. In the private sector, those same medicines are available in 63.2% of facilities, but cost on average about 650% more than the international reference price. While policies that promote access such as generic substitution are in place in many countries, additional national and international efforts are required to improve the availability and affordability of medicines. …”

Content

Executive summary
Official development assistance.
Market access (trade)
Debt sustainability.
Access to affordable essential medicines
Access to new technologies
Public-private partnerships or privatization?
The need to strengthen the global partnership for access to new technology . . . .”

 

 

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