Producing Medicines for Chronic Diseases in Less Developed Countries

Authors:

Philip Stevens

Publication date:

Jueves, Junio 10, 2010

Teaser:

The HIV / AIDS crisis bears a number of clinical and practical similarities to the new challenge of producing drugs to treating chronic disease in lower-income countries, providing a useful case study when determining effective strategies. A new literature review by Philip Stevens, the second in a three-part series, examines what can be learned from the global response to HIV / AIDS – and reveals some costly mistakes that should not be repeated.

Chronic conditions such as diabetes, cancers and heart disease are gradually displacing infectious diseases as the greatest health problem in lower-income countries. The long-term nature of these diseases, combined with ageing populations, will pose enormous problems for overstretched state health systems.

In responding to this challenge, there is some indication that governments may copy some of the policies which have informed the response to HIV/AIDS, including taking steps to reduce the cost of producing drugs. This paper is an attempt to see what lessons for the production of medicines for chronic disease can be drawn from the international response to HIV/AIDS.