Healthy Skepticism Library item: 14006

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: Journal Article

Moszynski P.
Alliance aims to help health workers in poor countries challenge corruption, excessive pricing, and waste of drugs
BMJ 2008 May 24; 336:(7654):1155
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/extract/336/7654/1155-a?etoc

Abstract:

A new initiative to help increase access to essential drugs in developing countries was launched last week by development secretary Douglas Alexander.

The Medicines Transparency Alliance (MeTA) brings together various international institutions-including the World Health Organization and World Bank-governments, civil society, and business to tackle problems with drug supplies, quality, and affordability and thus “improve the health of some of the world’s most disadvantaged people.”

The Department for International Development (DfID) stated: “One in three people around the world still don’t have access to the basic medicines they need to fight illness and ten million children die each year for want of cheap and effective drugs.”

It believes that up to a third of medicines on the market in developing countries are fakes, quoting a recent study by the American Enterprise Institute, which found that a third of malaria drugs sold in six African cities either did not contain high . . .