Access to Medical Oxygen roundtable series
In response to the medical oxygen crisis that has worsened due to COVID-19, the Every Breath Counts Coalition and the Access to Medicine Foundation co-hosted a series of three virtual roundtables to explore opportunities to increase access to medical oxygen in LMICs.
The first roundtable took place on 25 September 2020.
The main objective of the first roundtable was to share perspectives of the different actors and begin the process of building trust. Many have not engaged in shared value partnerships on this issue before. The Access to Medicine Foundation brought its experience of engaging directly with pharmaceutical companies on access to medicine issues, to foster an understanding of how to identify and develop solutions.
The first roundtable brought together representatives from nine medical gas companies, five corporate investors, and eight global health agencies to present their perspective on the access to medical oxygen challenge.
The full report from the first roundtable is available to download here.
Click below to see a full list of participants.
Second roundtable
The second roundtable took place on 9 December 2020. The session aimed to explore concrete opportunities to increase access to medical oxygen in LMICs in the context of COVID-19 and the broader achievement of the SDGs.
The objectives of the second roundtable were to introduce new stakeholders to the conversation and to discuss a proposal for partnership in select LMICs presented by a subset of stakeholders who attended the first roundtable.
Participants in the second roundtable included representatives from leading medical gas companies, corporate investors, multilateral development banks, donor governments and UN agencies and NGOs.
The full report from the second session is available for download here.
Click to see a full list of participants.
Third roundtable
The 3rd roundtable took place on 9 June 2021.
The session, co-hosted by the Every Breath Counts Coalition and the Access to Medicine Foundation, brought the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-A) Oxygen Emergency Taskforce together with industry, investors and other global health stakeholders to engage the oxygen industry in the vital work of the Taskforce, which was established in February 2021 to help LMICs respond to the rapidly rising need for oxygen to treat COVID-19 patients.
The objective of the third roundtable was to engage the oxygen industry more directly in the work of the Taskforce to prevent a repeat of the oxygen crises that have occurred in many LMICs, most recently in India and Nepal. Since the second dialogue on 9 December 2020, the pandemic has continued to cause oxygen shortages. Despite the
outpouring of international support, many countries are still reporting deaths from lack of access to oxygen.
The goals of the third invitation-only roundtable were to:
- Update attendees on ACT-A Emergency Oxygen Taskforce activities;
- Learn from industry on experience to date responding to the surge in LMIC demand for oxygen and highlight some of the bilateral oxygen support partnerships between industry and donor governments; and
- Advance specific options for moving forward together to more effectively respond to the next wave of oxygen shortages to prevent a repeat of the crisis in India.
The full report for the third roundtable can be downloaded here.
Click to see a full list of participants.
