access to medicines

Access to medicines poses a critical challenge in developing countries: prices are high, and new or adapted medicines and vaccines to address diseases of the developing world are lacking.

17 Feb – Pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline should be congratulated for breaking industry ranks and taking a major step toward helping poor people in developing countries to get better access to medicines, says international agency Oxfam. However GSK’s initiative this week is just the beginning.

Rich country donors and the World Bank are wasting money and risking lives by continuing to push unproven and discredited private healthcare programs in poor countries. Oxfam’s warning comes in a new report ‘Blind Optimism: Challenging the myths about private health care in poor countries’.

The realization of the right to health for millions of people in poor countries depends upon a massive increase in health services to achieve universal and equitable access.