Improving access to medicines in the South-East Asia Region

Globally, data on access to medicines are still limited, and the South-East Asia Region is no exception. Nevertheless, the picture that consistently emerges is that overall availability, which is one dimension of access, has improved over the past ten years. However, availability still tends to be lower in the public sector compared with the private sector; lower in health centres than in hospitals; and more of a problem for medicines for noncommunicable rather than communicable diseases. There are sometimes concerns about the ability to assess the quality of medicines being procured and to negotiate prices. We also know that, given attention and resources, access to medicines can be significantly improved in a relatively short period of time: this has been demonstrated in the Region both for selected products such as antiretroviral therapy and vaccines, and for essential medicines as a whole, e.g. in Bhutan, or in the Indian states of Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu.