ASCO 2023 Annual Meeting: Access to Essential Medicines

The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) will be hosting a virtual workshop on access to essential medicines as part of their annual meeting.

During the workshop, Danielle Barnum, Researcher at the Access to Medicine Foundation, will share her expertise on the barriers to quality cancer care. She will draw upon the Foundation's recently published first-of-its-kind analytical framework – which provides an assessment of the actions of generic and biosimilar medicine manufacturers in access.

Danielle will discuss the framework's development, including the process of identifying and selecting a subset of 102 priority essential off-patent medicines for generic medicine manufacturers to prioritise for access in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), focusing on the cancer products with the most significant gaps in availability and affordability and highlighting the need for access in these areas.

She will also reflect on the ever-increasing role of biosimilars in LMICs, alongside offering high-level recommendations to ensure early access in these countries.

About ASCO 2023

The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting will be held between 2-6 June 2023.

ASCO aims to defeat cancer through research, education, and equal patient care. To accomplish this ASCO provides ongoing education for oncology professionals, supports cancer research, enhances oncology practice, improves access to high-quality cancer care, creates a global network of oncology expertise, and educates cancer patients to make informed decisions about their health.

To read more about ASCO 2023 click here, or here to explore the Foundation’s work on generic and biosimilar medicine manufacturers.