Podcast | What COVID-19 has laid bare about global health priorities

The Foundation's Head of Policy, Margo Warren, was invited to join EMG GOLD podcast host Marc Koskela for a wide-ranging interview about the impact and lessons of COVID-19, global health priorities for 2022 and beyond, and specific steps which pharmaceutical companies can take to make their medicines and vaccines more accessible in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).

Margo shares insight into the urgent problem of COVID-19 vaccine inequity, and how the pandemic must be brought to an end everywhere in order for it to truly end anywhere. In R&D, the rapid innovation around vaccines and COVID-19 treatments shows that, where there is a will, there is a way – but that raises another question: what could be accomplished with the same energy and motivation to tackle other diseases such as malaria and TB?

The podcast, which comes from the European Medical Group (EMG) – publishers of the European Medical Journal – "aims to provoke conversations with stakeholders in the pharmaceutical industry, reports on the latest trends and innovations, and shares insight from high-profile guests."

The half-hour interview also delves into the threat of drug-resistant infections, the limited use of "access strategies" to get medical products to people living in LMICs, and how pharmaceutical companies can build those strategies into their plans before they launch new drugs. Margo highlights the findings of the Antimicrobial Resistance Benchmark and the Access to Medicine Index, looking at where the problems lie – and how the global health community can find solutions.