West African people should establish a medical anti-counterfeiting task force to promote local herbal medicines by protecting indigenous knowledge and genetic property. This is according to the communiqué from a workshop held in Accra, Ghana from 21-23 July 2008. A survey conducted by WHO between January 1999 and October 2000 found 60% of counterfeiting incidents occurred in developing countries and 40% in industrialised nations. To protect the local medical industries, the task force will prepare a mechanism for reporting counterfeit issues, including its harmful effect on local economy and health and launch awareness creation programmes as well as advising governments and local companies on ways to increase the use of security features on their products including medicines, cosmetics and medical devices. According to President Kufuor, this protection of intellectual property rights for local medical industries will sustain socioeconomic development that depends on investment and the growth of local industries, entrepreneurs and innovators who are willing to invest the capital needed to create brands and copyrights and to deploy money into research and development necessary to produce products which are accorded IP rights.
Public-Private Mix
Data from every part of the world show that those that are least well off have shorter life expectancies and heavier burdens of disease than those that are relatively wealthy. Subsequently, public–private partnerships (PPPs) have gained growing popularity as mechanisms for increasing access to essential drugs. This series of papers examines the characteristics of PPPs that aim to improve the health of the world’s poorest people. The authors contribute to the debate about the future role of PPPs and provide pointers to key areas for urgent attention to sustain and increase the momentum to reach the goals towards which PPPs are striving. Issues highlighted include the roles of different actors in partnerships involving public sector and philanthropic donors, the private sector, nongovernmental organizations, communities and researchers in developed and developing countries.
India's government could become the country's only purchaser of patented drugs and medical devices, under new proposals currently being discussed by ministers. While other nations operate central medicines buying for their public health care systems, this would be the first instance of a government also becoming the sole supplier for private health care providers, and could set a precedent for African countries.
Data from every part of the world shows that those who are least well off have shorter life expectancies and heavier burdens of disease than those who are relatively wealthy. Subsequently, public-private partnerships (PPPs) have gained growing popularity as mechanisms for increasing access to essential drugs. This series of chapters examines the characteristics of PPPs that aim to improve the health of the world’s poorest people. The authors contribute to the debate about the future role of PPPs and provide pointers to key areas for urgent attention to sustain and increase the momentum to reach the goals towards which PPPs are striving. Issues highlighted include the roles of different actors in partnerships involving public sector and philanthropic donors, the private sector, nongovernmental organisations, communities and researchers in developed and developing countries. The picture that emerges is multifaceted and complex. The PPP approach has evidently focused attention on some neglected areas and has galvanised action that is bringing new resources and innovative solutions to address some health problems. But many challenges remain if their promise is to be fulfilled, including greater and more sustainable financing over the longer term and better mechanisms for coordination. The authors highlight that the ethical imperative of reducing health inequities - closing the gap between the health of the poorest and those who are better off - demands the utmost collective effort.
What role can non-state providers play in scaling up healthcare delivery to meet the Millennium Development Goals? A policy briefing paper for the UK Department for International Development addresses this question using case studies in Bangladesh, India, Malawi, Nigeria, Pakistan and South Africa. Non-state providers (NSPs) of healthcare, whether philanthropic or commercial, exist outside the public sector. Research by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine found evidence that NSPs provide the majority of primary contacts with the health system in all six countries, except possibly South Africa. This is true for poor and rich alike. Poorer households are likely to spend a higher proportion of their income on private sector care than the rich, while the rich tend to access higher quality services. For successful and sustainable collaboration between governments and NSPs, the author recommends that donors should: encourage trust between state and non-state sectors; enable smaller providers, which may have greatest coverage of the poor, to come together to interact with governments and donors; and invest resources and expertise to develop human, transport and technical monitoring capacity; support policy formulation, management and research.
Medical aid coverage is lowest among black South Africans, with only 7,4% of individuals covered, and highest in the white population, with a 66,5% coverage, Statistics SA said on Thursday. In the general population, 79,7% of those who were ill or injured consulted a health worker, according to the General Household Survey for 2007. The survey has been conducted annually since 2002. More individuals who used public-sector healthcare facilities were satisfied with the service they received in 2007 (87,6%) than in 2006 (84,2%) and in 2002 (81,6%). In the private sector, satisfaction levels increased slightly from 95,35% to 96,5% between 2002 and 2007.
Health minister Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang speaking at the Board of Healthcare Funders' annual conference stated that the private health sector has seen an uncontrolled cost spiral since the 1980s and that it has become increasingly unaffordable for South Africans to belong to medical schemes. She identified the most important cost drivers as private hospitals, specialists and administrative costs.
Global progress towards reducing undernutrition has been made through enlightened public policies, targeted development assistance, private sector actions and commitments from civil society. Yet every year, the deaths of more than 3.5 million children under the age of 5 can be attributed to undernutrition. This article argues that strong public-private sector partnerships can help to reduce undernutrition.
Public-private partnership organisations (PPPOs) — which focus on African neglected diseases — have failed to change the imperialist research paradigm or involve African researchers on an equal basis. Every major PPPO is headquartered in Europe or the United States: "Not one 'global' PPPO is led by a person who is a developing-country national, and not one resides within one of the developing countries severely affected by neglected infectious diseases." Senior staff and boards of directors show similar trends. And although disbursements to developing countries have been impressive, "Africans are only able to access resources that (predominantly) non-Africans decide are appropriate." In addition, African states have not created career structures for clinicians and scientists, so there is relatively little capacity to build PPPOs in Africa, a situation which must be changed by African states investing in health-related PPPOs.
The Free State Province in South Africa, with the provincial capital at Bloemfontein, is home to 2.8 million people. But only 13 per cent have private health insurance with most relying on government-operated facilities for their healthcare needs. There are two academic public hospitals in Bloemfontein: Pelonomi and Universitas. In 1997, the government was unable to raise the estimated R825 million needed towards the major renovation of Pelonomi hospital and a partial upgrade of Universitas Hospital. The solution emerged through a public-private partnership between the Philippine national government and the private sector. The PPP was structured for the hospital redevelopment project between three partners.