Dispelling myths about drug procurement policy
In a recent Lancet article (June 2018), GAiA contributors, C.Ramirez and L.Parvin join M.V Valen and D. Jamieson to comment on the procurement of health commodities and the factors which influence the Partnership for Supply Chain Management (PFSCM). ‘The PFSCM has been providing procurement services to the US Government, the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and other public-sector clients worldwide, supplying over 5 billion US$ in health commodities.’ Read more.
Expanding Access to Medicines and Promoting Innovation: A Practical Approach
On October 24, 2018, Global Access in Action (GAiA) in collaboration with the Petrie Flom Center held a conference on Drug Pricing Policies to assess the current challenges presented in drug pricing policy, from development to delivery. The conference was a follow up on the paper published in the Georgetown Journal on Poverty Law & Policy, where Quentin Palfrey, Co-Director of GAiA, highlighted practical strategies which can be implemented by pharmaceutical companies and which can have a profound impact on humanitarian outcomes without undermining the profitability of their ventures. Read More
Innovations in Drug Discovery and Policy
“Recent reports suggest that at least 10% of all global drug supplies fail to meet the basic quality and efficacy standards. Reports about individual life-saving drugs in several countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America show that as much as 50% or more of the said drugs may be fake, substandard, or counterfeit.” Read more about how to improve quality of drugs from our panelist at the Drug Pricing Conference, M. Zaman, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor of Biomedical Engineering and International Health at Boston University.
Achieving Equitable Access to Vaccines: From Policies to Provisions
On October 17, 2018, Julia Barnes-Weise, Executive Director of the Global Healthcare Innovation Alliances Accelerator (GHIAA)) a non-profit organization spun out of a program in Public Policy at Duke University, and a Senior Consultant to the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), spoke at the Harvard Law School. This event was jointly organized by Global Access in Action and the Petrie Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Bioethics, and Biotechnology as part of the speaker series.
Julia Barnes-Weise presentation on “Achieving Equitable Access to Vaccines: From Policies to Provisions” focused on the mission of CEPI which is to ‘accelerate the development of vaccines… Read more.
Feeling the Pressure Points of the Indian Healthcare System
By: Tanvi Kanchinadam
Today, India is bearing witness to the most comprehensive piece of health reform legislation the world has ever seen. This legislation, known as the National Health Protection Mission, is part of the ambitious health care agenda of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It is aimed at covering about 40% of India’s most vulnerable population, or approximately 100 million families at the bottom of the socio-economic and caste ladder, each with a coverage of about 7,100 dollars per year. (“Cabinet Approves,” 2018). Read More