The Health Impact Fund: Making new medicines accessible for all.

Abstract

The chief problems with the present system governing the development and distribution of medicines are well known: despite relatively low manufacturing costs patented medicines are often very expensive and are therefore unaffordable for most people; and diseases concentrated among the poor attract little or no pharmaceutical research. As a result of both factors the disease burden among the poor is avoidably very high. Many diseases of the poor are communicable and expose all of humanity to the risk of new and virulent strains. These problems are further aggravated: by patients who often deterred by high prices fail to complete a full course of treatment; by lack of access to competent medical staff who would ensure that medicines are taken correctly; and by counterfeiters often attracted by high prices who may dilute a medicines active ingredients. In addition competitive marketing and litigation costs reduce the return from innovation and make it a less attractive investment. Each of these problems has provoked ideas and initiatives by academics NGOs governments and international agencies. By supporting both innovation and real access the Health Impact Fund extends the best of these ideas into one comprehensive unified solution that makes substantial progress toward a rational system of developing and distributing worldwide the pharmaceuticals we all need. (Excerpt)

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