Update

If the ambitious but realistic global goal of ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030 is to become a reality, HIV prevention, testing, treatment and counselling services must be scaled up rapidly. A crucial element of this is ensuring sustainable supplies of high-quality diagnostics and medicines in the most affected countries.

A high-level meeting held in Geneva, Switzerland, on 14 October explored how countries can improve access to medicines and develop their domestic production, with the help of public and private investment.

Organized by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development and UNAIDS, the session was part of the World Investment Forum 2014. Entitled Investing in Access to Medicines and Local Production in Developing Countries, the session brought together government representatives, pharmaceutical companies, senior policymakers, heads of international bodies, representatives of civil society and the media.

UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé, giving the keynote address, stressed the critical role of antiretroviral medicines in the AIDS response, and the potential benefit of innovative funding. He challenged governments and the investment community to consider new approaches to working together.

Panellists examined the opportunities and challenges of state-owned, public–private and privately-owned investment models for domestic pharmaceutical production and their impact on access to diagnostics and medicines, particularly generic antiretroviral medicines.

It was noted that expanding access to HIV treatment has profound benefits, not only for individual recipients and their families but for economies as a whole, given the increased productivity, greater longevity and lower long-term health expenditure. Local production of antiretroviral medicines could also act as a pathfinder to greater overall pharmaceutical industry progress, generating research and development capacity and increasing self-reliance, with locally responsive research agendas that cater to emerging needs, such as the Ebola virus disease outbreak. Participants also noted the need to develop domestic skills through training, the importance of quality assurance and pharmaceutical regulation and the need for laboratory facilities and testing protocols that could be rapidly scaled up.

It was agreed that making concrete moves to promote investment in access to local medicines and local production is now vital, with the cost of inaction seen as far too high.