Report on the East African Access to Essential Medicines Conference June 15 -16, 2000, Nairobi, Kenya

"I am tired of not being able to treat patients because the medicines are too expensive. Africans should not be dying because of inability to pay when effective medicines can be available at affordable prices. These medicines are already available in countries such as Thailand, India, and Brazil."--Dr Christopher Ouma, AIDS project co-ordinator, Médecins Sans Frontières, Kenya. Although many participants were already acutely aware of the high prices of life-saving medicines in East Africa, data presented by pharmacist Kirsten Myhr caused quite a stir. The presentation showed that East Africans sometimes pay more than twice what Europeans pay for many essential medicines. Myhr examined the retail prices of 15 medicines in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, then compared them with prices in Norway (about average within Europe). One example cited was the potent antibiotic ciprofloxacin, which was found to be twice as expensive in Uganda as in Norway. The malaria medicine mefloquine, for which there is a tiny market in Norway, was also twice as expensive in Tanzania where malaria is endemic. "The figures show that the entire region is suffering from reverse equity," said Myhr, "the poor are paying more than the rich". Dr. Sam Muziki of the World Health Organization (WHO) put this pricing data in perspective when he explained that, in developing countries, 80% of drugs are paid for out of patients' pockets. According to data presented at the conference, the average Tanzanian would have to work 215 days to purchase a basket of 13 essential medicines, while a Canadian would only have to work 8. In addition to this imbalance between wealthy and poorer countries, there is also a dramatic difference between prices in countries with and without patents on specific drugs. One example presented at the meeting was fluconazole, a treatment used for AIDS-related meningitis. In Thailand, where several generic versions of the product are readily available, competition has lowered the price to US $0.30 per 200 mg capsule. This same drug costs US $ 18.00 in Kenya, where it is patent protected.

View full text ››    Print     Email     Comment     Add content

Contributor: Shambhu Ghatak
Published Date: May 8, 2008