Shaping the future of global access to safe, effective, appropriate and quality health products

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Date

2024

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

BMJ Publishing Group

Abstract

Treaties and covenants confirming the right to health would suggest that everybody is entitled to access essential diagnostic, preventive and therapeutic products.1 However, before the COVID-19 pandemic, an estimated twobillion people lacked access to essential medicines and vaccines, and most primary care facilities in low-income and middleincome countries (LMICs) lacked essential diagnostic services.2 The pandemic has widedeepened pre-existing gaps. The inequitable access to COVID-19 vaccines uncovered multiple structural problems in the organisation, financing and governance of the medical research and development (R&D) and supply ecosystem,3 encompassing unclear demand, weak distribution systems, poor donation practices and corruption, historic inequalities in access to knowledge, training and technological capabilities, lack of technology sharing and transfer, limited local production, and the absence of public health perspective in intellectual property governance. Globally, the response to the pandemic tested our world’s solidarity and brought to light continued (colonial) power dynamics that fuelled inequities, misinformation and mistrust. It also blatantly ignored lessons from the past, including the importance of gender equity

Description

Keywords

Health policy, Health systems, MEDICINE::Social medicine::Public health medicine research areas

Citation

Ravinetto, R., Henriquez, R., Srinivas, P.N., Bradley, H., Coetzee, R., Ochoa, T.J., Ngabonziza, J.C.S., Mazarati, J.B., Van Damme, W., van de Pas, R. and Vandaele, N., 2024. Shaping the future of global access to safe, effective, appropriate and quality health products. BMJ Global Health, 9(1), p.e014425.