Local Production for Access to Medical Products: Developing a Framework to Improve Public Health

Overview

This paper is the output of work commissioned and undertaken by the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD) and a range of stakeholders working in the fields of public health, industrial policy and development (United Nations, 2011a; WHO, 2011a,b,c,d,e). It is supported by funding from the European Union. The aim of this work was to develop a framework that could bring together and guide policy-makers and others from all these relevant fields. The framework presented here provides an entry point for supporting the local production of medicines, vaccines and diagnostics in a manner that should improve access to those medical products maximizing the potential to improve public health.