Introduction: Getting medicines to the people who need them--Is it simply a case of making more money available?

APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Jonathan D. Quick, MD, MPH, Management Sciences for Health, 784 Memorial Drive, Cambridge, MA 02139, 617-250-9500, jquick@msh.org

Scaling up established prevention and treatment programs for life-threatening diseases and medical conditions would save millions of lives each year. To facilitate this scale up, new funding sources such as the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM) and the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) are making unprecedented sums of money available to procure medicines. If these global initiatives produce successful results by saving lives, then even more funding is likely to follow; however, if these initiatives fail to meet their life-saving objectives, the credibility of recipient countries and the international aid community will be lost and future support may be devastated. Two of the greatest threats to success are inadequate pharmaceutical supply systems and the worsening human resource crisis.

Learning Objectives:

At the conclusion of the session, participants will be able to

• Understand the magnitude of resource needs and funding being provided for pharmaceutical procurement and distribution by global initiatives
• Discuss the opportunities and risks brought on by this unparalleled outpouring of resources
• Identify the greatest challenges to the successful scaling up of initiatives to distribute lifesaving drugs

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No

Recorded presentation

Meeting the Pharmaceuticals Access Scale-up Challenge

The 134th Annual Meeting & Exposition (November 4-8, 2006) of APHA