High Level Panel on Access to Medicines: What is it and what does it recommend?
Lack of access to medicines affects persons like Oumar, a young man in Mali suffering from Lymphatic filariasis. Oumar started experiencing the swelling in his feet at a very young age. The uncomfortable and painful disease prevented him from attending school and made him the brunt of jokes. Oumar’s condition is just one of many cases around the world in which we see abject poverty and the prevalence of disease.
On November 19th, 2015, past UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon called for a High-Level Panel (HLP) to address the issue of access to medicines. This panel consisted of respected intellectuals from various stakeholder groups who are experts in their field. They each brought knowledge about public health, medical innovations, health technologies, human rights and many other topics to the table. Their purpose was to “review and assess proposals and recommend solutions for remedying the policy incoherence between the justifiable rights of inventors, international human rights law, trade rules and public health in the context of health technologies.”
In addition to the panel, an expert advisory group was also organized. This group was comprised of private and public sectors members - academia, civil service and professional organizations. Private individuals, living with conditions like HIV were also part of this board. The diverse expertise of the group allowed them to “provide valuable insights and contribute towards fresh ideas and solutions; to recommend a regime for pharmaceutical products which is consistent with international human rights law and public health requirements; safeguard the justifiable rights of inventors.”
In the HLP’s final report, a member of the Panel, Dr. Ruth Okediji, proposed “a social-responsibility index” in order to encourage pharmaceutical firms to direct their resources towards aiding developing countries. This index would be a regulatory overlay, designed to improve the social welfare of developing countries by incentivizing firms to score higher on the index. The outcome should, therefore, be satisfactory for all parties involved.
Since the High-Level Panel published its final report on access to medicines and innovation in 2016, changes are yet to be made. The recommendations of the Panel have been disapproved by the pharmaceutical industry and some countries including the United States, Germany, Japan, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. These countries prefer to defend the interests of pharmaceutical companies in international trade agreements. Developing countries on the other hand, as well as the European Parliament, support the HLP mandates. Medicines for HIV, tuberculosis, hepatitis C and cancer are far from the reach of the corners of the world where they are most needed. Even the countries which protest the implementation of the HLP mandate suffer these circumstances.
Oxfam International, (a confederation of 20 organizations that work in over 90 countries to alleviate poverty injustice around the world), made some suggestions on how to next address the global crisis. These recommendations are addressed to the UN, WHO, WTO, G7, and G20. Oxfam urged the UN Secretary-General to begin a comprehensive discussion regarding the implementation of the HLP recommendations with member governments, world leaders and across UN agencies as soon as possible. In addition, the UN should include the HLP recommendations in high level meetings on diseases, including the 2018 meeting on Tuberculosis. The WHO was encouraged to fully integrate and represent HLP recommendations in the WHO mandates on access to medicines. The HLP recommendations should also guide the government negotiations at G7 meetings - the ongoing meeting in Italy, the 2018 G7 in Canada and the Argentinean G20 meetings.
Both Dr. Okediji’s view and Oxfam’s recommendations suggest a model similar to the Global Health Impact (GHI) index, directed by Professor Nicole Hassoun at Binghamton University. The Global Health Impact index is used to aggregate and evaluate information on companies, drugs, and diseases. The collated data is then used to measure the impact of diseases as well as the efficacy of the drugs. The index not only highlights the burden of diseases but their alleviation as well. Measuring the degree of shortcomings versus the degree of relief proves effective in providing transparency to customers, biotech companies, pharmaceutical industries and NGOs alike. The GHI index is listed by the panel as a contribution towards access to medicines. The acknowledgment of the GHI index coupled with Dr. Okediji’s suggestions in the final report asserts that the GHI index is a resourceful tool and could play a vital role in access to medicines.
References
“Lymphatic Filariasis” The END Fund. http://www.end.org/whatwedo/ntdoverview/lymphatic-filariasis
“The Panel” High Level Panel on Access to Medicines. http://www.unsgaccessmeds.org/new-page/
“The Expert Advisory Group” High Level Panel on Access to Medicines. http://www.unsgaccessmeds.org/the-expert-advisory-group-eag-2/
“The Expert Advisory group ”High Level Panel on Access to Medicines. http://www.unsgaccessmeds.org/the-expert-advisory-group-eag-2/
Ruth Okediji, “Recommendations to enhance Innovation and Access to Health Technologies” Final Report of the United- Nations High Level PAnel Access to Medicines (September 14th, 2016). Accessed by September 18th, 2017, 59.
