When Profit Becomes the Problem

Pharmaceutical industries have a prerogative to make profit. Ideally, to do so, pharmaceutical organizations have to have a low cost of production (that is, research and development) in comparison to the costs of the product (that is, the drugs). In addition, regulatory standards for drug production must be met without increasing costs. In developing countries of the world, accountability to regulatory standards is problematic. Requiring that the pharmaceutical industries in these nations meet high regulatory standards will impose higher costs on R&D and consequently, on the pricing of drugs. Consequently, there are many cases where drugs are overpriced and unaffordable. A good example is found in India, one of the largest manufacturers of drugs and a nation disproportionately affected by lack of access to medicines. In this nation, many people have to pay out of pocket for the medicines and many cannot afford them. Affinity for profit seems to be prioritized, further widening the gap between people and their access to medicines.

How can this imbalance be addressed?

Public-private partnerships (PPP) are an important means of developing innovations to address market deficiencies that will otherwise, affect the cost of drugs. Each organization provides an essential benefit to the partnership due to mutual commitment to attaining the same goals. Another benefit of PPPs, especially in the pharma sector, is that they are geared towards eliminating the poverty-inequality gap, unlike independent pharmaceutical groups which aim for profit.

Organizations like Global Health Impact are important in realigning the focus of the pharma sector and bridging the inequality gap. By measuring factors such as death and disease averted, GHI offers transparency to PPPs, pharmaceutical, biotech, philanthropic, and other related industries in global health to know where the issues lie and where changes could be made to improve global health conditions. To illustrate, the GHI team is currently analyzing Lymphatic Filariasis (an NTD) to establish which resources (especially drugs) will be the most successful in effecting global well-being.These processes eventually produce results that GHI can add to its drug index, which will inform pharma and biotech industries on what methods are having the most impact. These stakeholders should, in turn, apply this knowledge on the R&D, manufacturing and distribution level.The goal here is that the impact of the drugs on a global-scale will inspire pharma manufacturers to further this impact by improving their product accessibility.

References:

1. Patricia M. Danzon, Eric L. Keuffel. (2014). Regulation of the Pharmaceutical‐Biotechnology Industry Economic Regulation and Its Reform: What Have We Learned?, 407 ‐ 484 c
2. Ahmad, A., Khan, M. U., & Patel, I. (2015). Drug pricing policies in one of the largest drug manufacturing nations in the world: Are affordability and access a cause for concern? Journal of Research in Pharmacy Practice, 4(1), 1–3. http://doi.org/10.4103/2279-042X.150043
3. Thomas S. Woodson. (2016). Public private partnerships and emerging technologies: A look at nanomedicine for diseases of poverty Research Policy, 45(7), 1410-1418. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2016.04.005