Industrial relations
In a developed country such as the UK, pharmaceutical companies play an important role in people's health and wellbeing. But many people living in the developing world don't have access to life-saving vaccines and drugs. They can't afford to pay for them and neither can their governments.
Prices are high partly because of patent protection, which give companies a monopoly for several years after a drug is approved for sale. Companies argue that this protection is needed so they can recoup the hundreds of millions of pounds needed to develop a new medicine. A number of recent initiatives have managed to lower the cost of drugs for developing nations.
What's more, there is little incentive for profit-making drug firms to invest in research into diseases that are only prevalent in developed countries. The result is the '10-90 gap' – only 10 per cent of health research is devoted to diseases that affect 90 per cent of the world's population.
Not surprisingly, access to medicine has become a contentious issue. In the event of a flu pandemic, for example, will drugs like Tamiflu and an effective flu vaccine be available only to people who live in rich countries? Poor countries are worried and are seeking solutions to guarantee supply.
Indonesia, for example, recently complained that avian flu samples, given freely to the World Health Organization, would just benefit Western pharmaceutical companies. They would make money from therapeutics from which Indonesian people would not benefit.
New solutions
One option is to take advantage of trade rules that allow governments to take measures to protect public health. This means suspending patent rules so medicines can be made cheaply locally.
Several new initiatives have been launched to address the failure of the 'market' to spur research into diseases of the developing world and to improve access to essential medicines. Hundreds of international public-private partnerships (PPPs) have been established, including several major global initiatives for communicable diseases.
In an attempt to accelerate the discovery of new vaccines, the G8 nations recently proposed an advanced market commitment scheme. They promise to subsidise the purchase of new vaccines thereby giving a guaranteed market to drug companies.
Another multi-country innovative financing mechanism is called UNITAID. This is an international drug purchase facility that will use funds from levies on air tickets to supply life-saving drugs to people in need of them. It is too early to say which models, if any, will succeed.
PPPs have made a big impact, however, and suggest that the landscape of drug development and supply is slowly changing.
Image credit: Matthew Herring, Wellcome Images