Forum 2015 | Worldconnectors

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		VoiceOver 2015 member   Bright Echefu Nigeria 4 posts View profile 06 April 2010  20:01    Quote The Role of Pharmaceutical companies in Infectious Disease Eradication in Developing Countries Making more medicines seems like a good idea but where might they come from? Muck of the technology and expertise needed to make medicines is to be found in pharmaceutical companies. Unfortunately, it’s not that simple. Most pharmaceutical companies are based in the developed countries which have different priorities such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and Alzheimer diseases. Pharmaceutical companies argue that they can survive and provide more therapies if they can make profit. Most of them are reluctant to invest vast amounts of time and money to developing drug that few could afford to buy. As a result, diseases caused by trypanosome (sleeping sickness and Chagas disease) and leprosy, have been dubbed neglected diseases because they attract so little investment. This can change when people from wealthy countries catch poor country diseases. The anti-malarial drug Mefloquine for example is a product of the United States army research stimulated by the impact of malaria on US soldiers during the Vietnam War. Tourism also ensures that there is still an important developing market for anti-malarial. Similarly, leishmaniasis has bumped up the agenda when it was suggested as a possible cause of ill health in Gulf war veterans. However, even if pharmaceutical companies did adopt a neglected disease, the therapies will likelihood be too expensive for developing countries. And patent protection seen as essential to safeguard the pharmaceutical company’s high investment on drug development, prevents poor countries from making their own versions of medicines for many years. Developing new therapies or making existing therapies more accessible is one way of addressing the problem of infectious diseases in the developing countries. But would we be better of tackling other fundamental obstacles in health such as lifestyles, attitudes and poverty?

		VoiceOver 2015 member   Bright Echefu Nigeria 4 posts View profile 06 April 2010  20:07    Quote Re: The Role of Pharmaceutical companies in Infectious Disease Eradication in Developing Countries Developing new therapies or making existing therapies more accessible is one way of addressing the problem of infectious diseases in the developing countries. But would we be better of tackling other fundamental obstacles in health such as lifestyles, attitudes and poverty? Is HIV/AIDS more deserving than malaria? Should we be working on long term prospects or working out the best way to use what we already have? Should money spent on research actually be spent on treatment? Although, the focus is developing countries, this is a global issue. Are global trade agreements biased towards industrialized countries at the expense of developing countries? Does western aid come with too many strings attached? Are we imposing western values in countries with different cultures and traditions? The role of research also raises questions? What is the role of educative programs and what values do we put on deeply ingrained traditions and beliefs? How do we establish priorities? Clearly, there aren’t going to be easy answers to these questions and no easy cures to infectious diseases. The effect of poverty is the single biggest barrier to improving health care in developing countries. Until, people can reliably access nutritious food, clean water, health care facilities and trained medical staff, the vicious cycle of poverty-causing ill health and ill health-causing poverty will not be broken. Whatever approach is taken to improve health care, it needs to be innovative and provide real effects which will see to the successful eradication of most of these infectious diseases.

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