Improving Access to Medicines for Non-communicable Diseases in the Developing World

Résumé du livre

Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) now account for the lion's share of global morbidity and mortality. Much of the burden is falling on developing countries, whose relatively recent adoption of Western-style health behaviors and lifestyle choices has led to increased prevalence of risk factors for NCDs. At the same time, developing countries also hold the greatest burden of infectious disease, and the rapid increase of NCDs has left countries with under-resourced health care systems to deal with a double burden. Spurred by growing attention to the global devastation caused by NCDs, the United Nations (UN) General Assembly will hold a high-level meeting on non-communicable diseases on September 19 and 20, 2011, to "set a new global agenda" on NCDs. In connection with the upcoming meeting, this paper is a first step toward developing a policy research agenda, on behalf of the research-based pharmaceutical industry, on how to improve access to NCD medicines in developing countries. This paper is to serve as the basis for further stakeholder consultation, the objective of which is to finalize a policy research program that will be executed by the research-based pharmaceutical industry in close collaboration with other stakeholders. Given this purpose, the paper focuses narrowly on improving access to medicines, even though health promotion and disease prevention must play a key role in reducing the NCD burden. Because NCDs are not entirely preventable and reversing lifestyle trends and their impact on population health will take time, adequate access to NCD medicines remains essential for mitigating the negative impact of NCDs. This paper also focuses on ideas and innovations that leverage core industry capabilities that, when developed and implemented in partnership with other stakeholders, will improve access to medicines within the constraints that developing countries face today, as opposed to those that would require fundamental systems change and/or economic development.