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Publications

Spotlight on pharmaceutical companies’ actions in women’s health and SRHR

Ahead of a special report in the 2022 Access to Medicine Index, the Foundation has published a Briefing on key issues in women's health and SRHR (sexual and reproductive health and rights), and the role of pharmaceutical companies in making sure essential health products are available and accessible to women in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).

Date

25 May 2022

Download the paper

Women living in LMICs are deeply affected by a lack of access to essential health products, and in particular products related to SRHR. This situation reflects a longstanding failure to ensure that such products reach the women who need them. 

For many years, the Access to Medicine Foundation has been assessing and tracking the performance of research-based pharmaceutical companies in expanding access to their products in LMICs, and looking at whether they are developing new products that address R&D priorities and the needs of the most vulnerable populations.

Special report on women's health and SRHR in the 2022 Index

In November 2022, the Foundation will publish the next Access to Medicine Index, which will include a special report focused on pharmaceutical companies’ actions to improve women’s health and SRHR. 

This Briefing looks ahead to that special report, and looks back over previous findings about SRHR and women’s health to shed light on why more action from companies is urgently needed.  

The paper covers:

  • Urgent problems in women's health and SRHR

  • The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic

  • The momentum behind SRHR as a global health priority

  • The role of the Access to Medicine Foundation in driving progress

  • Looking back: Tracking the pharmaceutical industry's involvement in access to medicine

  • Looking forward: Recent examples of company actions

  • What next? Special report to follow in the 2022 Index

Download the paper

Spotlight on pharmaceutical companies’ actions in women’s health & SRHR: Looking back & moving forward

Download

Key challenges in women's health and SRHR in LMICs

A lack of access to treatments for dangerous conditions such as hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, maternal sepsis, obstructed labour, miscarriage, endometriosis, and uterine cancer can have a huge impact on women’s quality of life, and can ultimately be life-threatening. For example, approximately 90% of those who die from cervical cancer are women living in LMICs, and most of those deaths would have been preventable through immunisation. 

Unfortunately, the knock-on effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have made an already challenging situation worse, for example by disrupting HPV vaccination programmes, postnatal care, and access to family planning services.

The UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) should be achieved by 2030, and the global health community is working towards this ambition. But unless pharmaceutical companies and other global health stakeholders step up to increase access to medicines, vaccines and diagnostics in LMICs, it will not be possible to reach many of these goals – especially Goal 3, which is to “ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages." This encompasses targets including reducing maternal mortality and granting universal access to sexual and reproductive care. 

Margo Warren

Director of Government Engagement & Policy

mwarren@Accesstomedicinefoundation.org

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Resource Centre

Read the latest research from the Foundation
Research

2022 Access to Medicine Index

15 November 2022
Research

The Methodology for the 2022 Access to Medicine Index

22 September 2021
Research

A holistic approach to expanding access to contraceptive products

15 November 2022

The Access to Medicine Foundation

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