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| Title: Providing Innovative Solutions and Improving Access to Healthcare in the Developing World |
| Date Added: May 28, 2010 07:04:05 PM |
| Author: Mark Grayson |
| Category: Business : Health |
| Billions of people worldwide living in developing countries struggle with diseases and other health challenges that threaten their very survival as well as their prospects for building a better life. Developing innovative, sustainable health care solutions for the developing world is essential to ending this vicious cycle of disease, poverty and despair. The Global Health Progress (GHP) initiative, funded and supported by America’s biopharmaceutical research companies, seeks out these innovative solutions by joining forces with governments, public health leaders, universities, foundations and other stakeholders. GHP provides a platform that marshals the collective expertise and resources of biopharmaceutical research companies to find health care solutions that improve access to healthcare in the developing world by: • Promoting sustainable approaches to improving access to medicines in developing countries; • Developing innovative tools, medicines and mechanisms to fight neglected diseases; and • Raising awareness of global health challenges and current efforts to improve health and access to healthcare. America’s biopharmaceutical research companies are one of the largest contributors of funding for development of innovative cures for diseases affecting developing regions in Latin America, Asia and Africa. In the last decade, biopharmaceutical research companies have provided over $9.2 billion in direct assistance to healthcare for the developing world, including donations of medicines, vaccines, diagnostics, and equipment, as well as other materials and labor. As well as supporting GHP’s collaborative efforts, America’s biopharmaceutical companies are among the largest funders of the research and development necessary to cure neglected and major diseases in the developing world. They support research and development centers dedicated to finding innovative diagnostics, medicines and vaccines for diseases such as malaria, TB, sleeping sickness and dengue fever. Since 2000, five state-of-the-art research and development centers targeting neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) have been established by individual biopharmaceutical research companies. Biopharmaceutical companies invested more than $365 million into new cures and treatments to fight NTDs in 2008 alone and are the third largest funder in the world, ahead of all countries but the U.S. As a result of these exciting efforts, for example, Colombia was certified as the first country in the developing world to eliminate river blindness. The lessons learned in that effort are helping to shape similar efforts to eliminate river blindness globally. Moreover, the contributions of America’s biopharmaceutical companies support innovative efforts to develop drugs and treatments that can be safely and easily administered in situations where there are limited healthcare resources, such as treatments that can be sustained in hot climates where refrigeration is not available. Without these efforts, access to effective, sustainable healthcare for the developing world’s patients would be impossible. But beyond the efforts of individual companies, the collaborative GHP experience shows that while access to medicines is critical, product donations alone will not improve health care in the developing world. Long-term success depends on biopharmaceutical research companies working with governments and others to address the underlying barriers to health care, such as weak and fragmented health systems and inadequate resources. In addition to global research centers established by biopharmaceutical research companies to help find solutions to the health challenges confronting the developing world, there is a growing list of academic and NGO partnerships focusing on critical issues such as access, capacity building as well as research and development. These partnerships include: • 54 HIV/AIDS prevention programs • 16 tuberculosis programs • 17 anti-malaria programs • 9 tropical disease programs • 10 preventable disease programs • 29 child and maternal health programs • 24 chronic disease programs Medical and health care technology innovation is a critical tool for helping to solve many of the health challenges confronting the developing world and biopharmaceutical research companies are acknowledged global leaders in developing and deploying medical and healthcare technologies. In laboratories in a growing number of research centers around the world, biopharmaceutical research companies are investing and focusing on developing medicines specifically to meet developing world needs. In recent years, the biopharmaceutical research sector’s work on medicines and vaccines needed to fight diseases in the developing world has expanded to include: About GHP: |
