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Essential Medicines (Lancet Series)

Tuesday, 8th of November 2016

Several of the articles listed concern developing countries, in particular the country specific items on Pakistan and Nigeria. Note as well  "Political origins of health inequities: trade and investment agreements."

Can some health economist explain why the competition which brings down the cost of other items does not function, or functions poorly, in many developing countries? 

Essential Medicines (Lancet series)

Published: November 7, 2016

Executive Summary below; see articles listed, with weblinks, at http://www.thelancet.com/commissions/essential-medicines

Essential medicines are crucial to satisfy the priority health-care needs of the population, promote health, and achieve sustainable development.

Recognition of the importance of essential medicines is not new. The findings of the Lancets Commission synthesise lessons learned from the development of essential medicines policies over the past 30 years, and implementation after the landmark Nairobi Conference on the Rational Use of Drugs in 1985. This Commission explores and addresses ongoing questions such as: what progress has been achieved; what challenges remain to be addressed; which lessons have been learned to inform future approaches; and how can essential medicines policies be harnessed to promote universal health coverage and contribute to the global sustainable development agenda?

Debates about access to medicines have sometimes mistakenly focused on low-income and middle-income countries only. But the Commission shows that access to medicines is a global concern, irrespective of country income. 

The Commission report makes actionable recommendations to make essential medicines a central pillar of the global health agenda, and to translate policies into meaningful and sustainable health gains for populations worldwide.

The five key areas discussed in this Commission are:

• Paying for a basket of essential medicines (listen to Commission co-leader Veronika Wirtz)
• Making medicines affordable (listen to Commission co-leader Andrew Gray)
• Ensuring quality of medicines 
• Promoting quality medicines
• Developing new and missing medicines (listen to Commission co-leader Hans Hogerzeil) 

 

Commission

• Essential medicines for universal health coverage

Veronika J Wirtz, Hans V Hogerzeil, Andrew L Gray, Maryam Bigdeli, Cornelis P de Joncheere, Margaret A Ewen, and others

Essential medicines: The Lancet: November 7, 2016

Listen to the full podcast with the lead authors discussing highlights from the Lancet Commission.

Related content

• Correspondence

Drug prices threaten the NHS

Manon Ress, Jacob Levi, Diarmaid McDonald, John Piears, Dzintars Gotham

The Lancet

Full-Text HTMLPDF

• Correspondence

Uncontrollable medicine prices in Pakistan

Fahad Saleem, Mohamed Azmi Hassali, Qaiser Iqbal, Marvi Baloch, Pathiyil Ravi Shanker

The Lancet

Full-Text HTMLPDF

• Correspondence

Curbing the circulation of counterfeit medicines in Nigeria

Omotayo Fatokun

The Lancet

Full-Text HTMLPDF

• Editorial

Access to HCV treatments: hurdles not barriers

The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology

The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology

Full-Text HTMLPDF

• Viewpoint

Political origins of health inequities: trade and investment agreements

Desmond McNeill, Carolyn Deere Birkbeck, Sakiko Fukuda-Parr, Anand Grover, Ted Schrecker, David Stuckler

The Lancet

Full-Text HTMLPDF

• Viewpoint

Importation of generic hepatitis C therapies: bridging the gap between price and access in high-income countries

Narcyz Ghinea, Wendy Lipworth, Richard Day, Andrew Hill, Gregory J Dore, Mark Danta

The Lancet

Full-Text HTMLPDF

• Review

25 years of the WHO essential medicines lists: progress and challenges

Richard Laing, Brenda Waning, Andy Gray, Nathan Ford, Ellen t Hoen

The Lancet, Vol. 361, No. 9370

Full-Text HTMLPDF

• Editorial

A new Lancet Commission on Essential Medicines

The Lancet

The Lancet, Vol. 384, No. 9955

Full-Text HTMLPDF

• Editorial

Access to medicines—the status quo is no longer an option

The Lancet

The Lancet, Vol. 388, No. 10051

Full-Text HTMLPDF

Related links

The Lancet Commission on Essential Medicines Policies: Launch event details

The Lancet Commission on Essential Medicines Policies: Launch event programme

The Youth Commission on Essential Medicines was established to introduce a youth perspective into consideration and framing of essential medicines policies, and has provided a Comment on The Lancet Commission report.