UN High Level Panel report is good prescription for change in access to medicines

In our weekly expert view piece, Rohit Malpani, director of policy and analysis for Mèdecins Sans Frontiéres Access Campaign, discusses the UN Secretary General's High-Level Panel report on Access to Medicines and looks at the responsibilities it places on industry.

During the UN General Assembly in New York last month, the UN Secretary General’s High-Level Panel on Access to Medicines released its much-anticipated report, containing recommendations for governments and the pharmaceutical industry on how to enable better access to medicines and vaccines and how to ensure medical research and development (R&D) addresses unmet priority health needs.

As a medical humanitarian organization, we confront the effects of a lack of innovation for many diseases affecting patients on a daily basis, and we and our patients continually struggle to overcome barriers, like high prices, that prevent widespread access to needed medical tools.