Today was another special day for our HST939 course. Inder Singh, Director of Drug Access for the William J. Clinton Foundation was kind enough to take time out of his busy schedule and chat to our class about his teams experiences. Inder and his team at the foundation have done extraordinary work on the supply side to help reduce costs of anti-retroviral therapies (ART) for persons living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA).
Under his leadership an interdisciplinary team of scientists, business professionals, clinical, and public health professionals have helped to reduce the cost of ART as well as combination therapy for malaria medicines. In a few short years this team has worked to remarkably increased access to life saving medicines for pediatric AIDS patients around the globe. Another very impressive accomplishment for this team has been the 50% reduction of Malaria medicines for the world’s poor which has led to a doubling of access to life saving drugs.
A key question raised was, “How does one reduce the cost of life saving medicines for developing world markets?” A short list of answers ranged from negotiated price reductions, high volume advanced market commitment agreements, support lower cost local generic manufacturing, and price subsidies. However beyond these mechanisms, scientific and discovery ideas were also discussed. These include reformulation, harmonization of raw material supplies to help reduce risk as well as prices for manufacturers.
The Clinton Foundation is a shining example of innovative business practice. Personally, I worked with the foundation in 2004 as a country director for Jamaica. So I learned up close the workings of this extraordinary organization. I learned firsthand how one can apply business skills to tackle problems in emerging and resource poor markets. This experience has carried over and provided me great confidence
It is my personal belief that we have only begun to scratch the surface on supply side solutions. I also believe that innovative incentive and business models for pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and diagnostics will emerge over the next 3 – 5 years. These models will support rational design for emerging and resource poor markets as well as strengthen in-country testing capabilities that are a necessity to further the discovery and design sciences that meet these unique market needs. This is an area of great personal passion and I encourage others who may read this blog to contact me directly if interested in furthering the study and implementation of these models.
