Pharmaceutical Public Health
An emerging field in global health
The Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Target 3.8 aims to “achieve universal health coverage (UHC), which includes financial risk protection, access to quality essential healthcare services, and access to safe, effective, quality and affordable essential medicines and vaccines for all”. However, billions of people in low-resource settings do not have access to affordable medicines, vaccines and other health products. Furthermore, many are exposed to the risk of receiving substandard or falsified products.
Pharmaceutical public health is an emerging field in global health, which aims at analysing and strengthening the pharmaceutical systems. It requires a multidisciplinary approach to navigate and integrate the different components of an effective pharmaceutical system. Not only research, but also education should integrate different disciplines and approaches. We do this with our short course Pharmaceutical Policies in Health Systems, launched in 2021.
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Dr Raffaella Ravinetto is an associate professor within the Department of Public Health:
Dr Saleh Aljadeeah is a post-doc researcher within the Department of Public Health:
Fighting a global inequity
The reasons for the gap in access to quality-assured health products are multifactorial, ranging from an inadequate global governance of pharmaceutical innovation that prioritizes commercial interests over public health, to the weakness of many national pharmaceutical and regulatory systems. The strengthening of pharmaceutical systems should be based on the overarching assumptions that areas of interventions are interconnected to each other, and that essential health products are public goods, not commercial commodities.
Dive into the world of pharmaceutical public health
News
Uncertainties about the quality of medical products globally: lessons from multidisciplinary research (BMJ Global Health, 2023)
After reviewing progress on improving global medicine quality, participants plan next global conference (Centre for Tropical Medicine and Global Health, 2023)
The global gap in access to opioid analgesics for pain management: why is this (still) a silent crisis? (Ravinetto, 2023)
Towards a new structural approach to pharmaceutical innovation, intellectual property and public health: If not now, when? (Ravinetto, 2021)
Switching the poles of infectious diseases outbreaks: Time for a new gaze? (Ravinetto, 2020)
BTI Blog (Ravinetto)
Interesting links
Be-cause Health: Belgian platform on international health and access to quality medicines
Quality Medicines for all (QUAMED)
Medicine Quality – Infectious Diseases Data Observatory (IDDO)
