Access to Medicine and Health Care

Getting Started

1. What if the medicines that could save your life costs 100 times what you earn in a year? Information on the MSF Access Campaign from Medicines Sans Frontiers (MSF) /Doctors Without Borders

2. Health systems: Everyone has a right to access healthcare, but many are denied this right, Health Poverty Action Group

3. Q&A: What is universal health coverage? and more details about it  from the World Health Organization: "The goal of universal health coverage is to ensure that all people obtain the health services they need without suffering financial hardship when paying for them."

4. Towards Universal Health Coverage by 2030 An infographic from the World Bank: "Reaching universal health coverage is central to ending extreme poverty by 2030 and boosting shared prosperity." 

5. 途上国での薬を巡る課題ー医薬品アクセスと知財の関係 - brief article about the access to medicine from online journal website "The Povertist".

Building Your Knowledge and Understanding

1. Access to medicines - Information on EU policy on access to medicines for developing countries from the European Commission

2. Access to Medicine Index- from Access to Medicine Foundation, The NPO trying to guide pharmaceutical companies to do more for the low- and middle-income countries. 

3. Universal Health Coverage - A factsheet from the World Health Organisation (WHO)

4. Global Health Overview - Discussion of various issues that affect access to healthcare including: Millions Die Each Year, Needlessly; Health, Poverty And Inequality; Structural Adjustment—Cutting Back On Vital Health And Education Services; Large Pharmaceutical Companies—Profit At All Costs?; WTO—Patents, Intellectual Property, Emergency Drugs And Developing Countries; Increasing Commodification And Commercialization Of Healthcare

5. Access to Medicines: When medicines are unaffordable, they cannot saves lives and Health Justice from Health Gap Global Access Projet, an orgnaisation focuse don improvig the treatment of HIV/AIDS

6. Universal Health Coverage Information from the World Bank including Universal Health Coverage for Inclusive and Sustainable Development 11 case studies in developing countries.

7. Don’t copy Ghana’s health insurance - Oxfam warns poor countries Criticism by Ofam and Ghanaian NGOs on the World bank's Approach to providing access to health care.

8. Universal Health Coverage: a Commitment to Close the Gap an overview of a report from Save the Children

9. Generic Drugs from the World Health Organisation

10. Intellectual property and trade - the impact on access to medicines form the World Health Organisation

11. Access to medicines means access to life - from Oxfam America  (written in 2006)

12. TTIP and healthcare: Separating the facts from the fiction A positive view of trade agreements and access to health focusing on the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment partnership from the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries  and Associations

13. Information on Access to Medicines - Oxfam

14. Report Launch "Trading Up For Health"- from Health Poverty Action, For more details, see the full report:"Trading up for health: How to prevent trade deals from undermining health."

15. Trading Away Access to Medicines - Revisited: How the European trade agenda continues to undermine access to medicines A report from Oxfam and Health Action International Europe

16. Improving access to medicines in the Republic of Moldova - one of the case studies from WHO Europe

17. 医薬品アクセスの取り組み：日本企業が初のランク入り - short article about the movements of Japanese companies, from 薬事日報 (Japanese website focused on Medical articles and health support facts) 

18. Dialogue on Access to Medicine with Japanese pharma companies - article from Access to Medicine Foundation 

19. COVID-19: Are there enough health workers? - from ILO (International Labour Organization)

20. What is health financing for universal coverage - World Health Organisation (WHO)