Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- PART I International Provision of Public Goods under a Globalized Intellectual Property Regime
- PART II Innovation and Technology Transfer in a Protectionist Environment
- PART III Sectoral Issues: Essential Medicines and Traditional Knowledge
- 15 Managing the Hydra: The Herculean Task of Ensuring Access to Essential Medicines
- 16 Theory and Implementation of Differential Pricing for Pharmaceuticals
- 17 Increasing R&D Incentives for Neglected Diseases: Lessons from the Orphan Drug Act
- Comment: Access to Essential Medicines – Promoting Human Rights Over Free Trade and Intellectual Property Claims
- 18 Legal and Economic Aspects of Traditional Knowledge
- 19 Saving the Village: Conserving Jurisprudential Diversity in the International Protection of Traditional Knowledge
- 20 Legal Perspectives on Traditional Knowledge: The Case for Intellectual Property Protection
- Comment: Traditional Knowledge, Folklore and the Case for Benign Neglect
- 21 Protecting Cultural Industries to Promote Cultural Diversity: Dilemmas for International Policymaking Posed by the Recognition of Traditional Knowledge
- PART IV Reform and Regulation Issues
- Index
15 - Managing the Hydra: The Herculean Task of Ensuring Access to Essential Medicines
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 May 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- PART I International Provision of Public Goods under a Globalized Intellectual Property Regime
- PART II Innovation and Technology Transfer in a Protectionist Environment
- PART III Sectoral Issues: Essential Medicines and Traditional Knowledge
- 15 Managing the Hydra: The Herculean Task of Ensuring Access to Essential Medicines
- 16 Theory and Implementation of Differential Pricing for Pharmaceuticals
- 17 Increasing R&D Incentives for Neglected Diseases: Lessons from the Orphan Drug Act
- Comment: Access to Essential Medicines – Promoting Human Rights Over Free Trade and Intellectual Property Claims
- 18 Legal and Economic Aspects of Traditional Knowledge
- 19 Saving the Village: Conserving Jurisprudential Diversity in the International Protection of Traditional Knowledge
- 20 Legal Perspectives on Traditional Knowledge: The Case for Intellectual Property Protection
- Comment: Traditional Knowledge, Folklore and the Case for Benign Neglect
- 21 Protecting Cultural Industries to Promote Cultural Diversity: Dilemmas for International Policymaking Posed by the Recognition of Traditional Knowledge
- PART IV Reform and Regulation Issues
- Index
Summary
It is one thing to describe the Augean stables - another thing to clean them
Myres S. McDougalThe concept of essential medicines
The task of ensuring access to essential medicines presents a complex and embedded set of problems that will remain a persistent feature of the international governance landscape for the foreseeable future. According to the definition provided by the World Health Organization (WHO):
Essential medicines are those that satisfy the priority health care needs of the population. They are selected with due regard to public health relevance, evidence on efficacy and safety, and comparative cost-effectiveness. Essential medicines are intended to be available within the context of functioning health systems at all times in adequate amounts, in the appropriate dosage forms, with assured quality and adequate information, and at a price the individual and the community can afford.
The WHO's recommended list of essential medicines has been developed with a view to aiding procurement authorities in determining the supplies needed to treat local populations. The price of medicines is a significant factor in determining what should be included on the list since there is small utility in recommending expensive therapies that are not affordable. As the WHO observes:
In developing countries, newer combination antimalarial medicines may be 30–200 times more expensive than chloroquine; medicines to treat multi-drug resistant tuberculosis may cost 20–30 times more than the usual DOTS treatment; and treatment of HIV/AIDS with anti-retroviral medicines may cost between $400–2500 per year.
Most medicines budgets in developing countries are below $30 per person per year, with 38 countries having less than $2 per person per year.
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- International Public Goods and Transfer of Technology Under a Globalized Intellectual Property Regime , pp. 393 - 424Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2005
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