Sustainable solutions for “global access to medicines” problems

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to perform a worldwide survey on the opinion of over 1,000 stakeholders on the value of different approaches to improve global access to life‐saving medicines.Design/methodology/approachThe research is based upon information gathered by triangulation of literature data, data from worldwide questionnaires and data from interviews originating from opinion leaders.FindingsThe findings revealed the main determinants, which contributed to the occurrence of drug pricing conflicts in some emerging markets in the past decade, and documented the preferred approaches to increase global access to life‐saving medicines for the next decade.Research limitations/implicationsLimitations of the methodology are that some large countries were under‐represented in the questionnaire survey, and that the poorest stakeholders might have been under‐represented in the interviews.Practical implicationsThe practical implication of this work is that it resulted in the formulation of an ethical policy or conceptual framework, referred to as the P3S3‐model, that the stakeholders, including policy makers, can use to work together in a setting of reduced conflict.Social implicationsFor pharmaceutical companies it is an ideal model to deploy their global social responsibility.Originality/valueThis is the first research that was designed to obtain and to build upon the in‐depth insights of key stakeholders and opinion leaders, on a comprehensive list of possible approaches to provide life‐saving medicines to poor people, at reasonable prices, globally. Therefore, the paper is of high originality/value.