In an effort to further improve global health care, a team of experts have been chosen to make quality medicines more accessible.
Ban Ki-moon, secretary general of the United Nations, has announced on Friday, Nov 20, a selected 15-member panel to work on health technology access and innovation. They were chosen based on their deep understanding and know-how on public health, legal issues, and human rights. They are also experts in trade.
Co-chairing the panel are Ruth Dreifuss and Festus Gontebayne Mogae. Dreifuss is the first woman president of Switzerland in 1999. From 1993 to 2002, she became the federal interior minister who worked in scientific research and public health. Mogae, on the other hand, is the former Botswana president between 1998 and 2008. She contributed largely in making Botswana the first African country to use antiretroviral drugs to fight HIV. The rest of the members can be found here.
The panel will then work on two main objectives in order to meet the requirements of Sustainable Development Goal 3 and Agenda 30. The first one is to bring the costs of quality treatment down.
Recent studies have suggested that the costs of drugs for some of the prevalent diseases are getting more expensive. A group of oncologists, for example, had issued an editorial urging the health community to set up price control. Senate has also started investigating drug price hikes.
The second goal is provide ideal incentives for any health care innovation, which may include vaccines and diagnostics that encourage the promotion of the well-being of individuals. Ban has also lamented about the current thrust of health care products and services, which are geared toward potential financial return rather than adequate support to the poorest communities.
The members are expected to convene for the first time by next month and conduct stakeholder consultations. Ban will then receive the recommendations by the second half of next year.
