Access to Medicines

Access to hepatitis C medicines

Hepatitis C is a global epidemic. Worldwide, 185 million people are estimated to be infected, most of whom live in low- and middle-income countries. Recent advances in the development of antiviral drugs have produced therapies that are more effective, safer and better tolerated than existing treatments for the disease. These therapies present an opportunity to curb the epidemic, provided that t...

pharmaceutical strategic purchasing: a key to improve access to medicines

pharmaceuticals are often considered as the most significant cost driver of health care expenditures and at the same time have a major impact on patients’ curative processes and outcomes. other pieces of evidence emphasize that drugs are the input for the production of good health. they are considered as the most important and expensive element in the healthy supply chain and are more associate...

Access to innovative oncology medicines in Europe

This article intends to give an overview about developments in European Regulatory and Health Technology Assessment (HTA) of new cancer drugs. As background information, it will refer to an overview article by Bergmann et al. [1], which pointed out the status and the limitations of the current system. The authors discussed possible steps to improve the interface between regulators and HTA bodie...

Access to essential medicines in national constitutions.

Access to essential medicines is well founded in international law as part of the right to the highest attainable standard of health (" the right to health "). The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights adopted in 1966 calls for States Parties to take steps to ensure access to medical services for all. General Comment 14, added in the year 2000, applies the principles of...

Access to medicines - overcoming the barriers.