Government and Stakeholders discuss access to medicines

Initial findings on access to medicines in Malawi have been described as eye-opening, particularly for the HIV, TB, STI and aggressive medicines sectors.

Reacting to the findings, Ministry of Health HIV, STI and Viral Hepatitis Chief Medical Officer Dr. Rabson Kachala said the ministry had noted the preliminary results but would wait for the full report to inform further steps.

During the National Access to Medicine Advocacy Meeting held in Lilongwe yesterday, Dr. “Looking at the preliminary findings, a number of issues have also been highlighted that we expect to be improved, including the issue of record keeping,” Kachala added.

Presenting preliminary findings on access to medicines, independent consultant Dr. Benjamin Mosiwa shared that there are some tuberculosis drugs that are widely used and consume more resources, and also explained that there is no publicly available data on the top 10 drugs that are widely used by more people in the world. Country.

During the meeting, some stakeholders also objected to intellectual property barriers that prevent people from accessing various medicines in the country.

Community Health Rights and Advocacy (CHERA) Executive Director Aniz Mitha said that they organized the meeting to make medicines accessible and to promote the solidarity project implemented in four countries: Senegal, Tunisia, Uganda and Malawi.

National Civil Society Advocacy President Gift Trapence stated that the problem of insecure storage of medical data is one of the most important challenges faced by the country and needs to be improved.

“I think the consultant is having difficulties accessing the data, which is reflected in our systems in terms of how we manage the data, because if we can’t keep the data then maybe we’re taking it too or we’re mistargeting our people.” Trapence stated that the data should be stored and that every citizen should know the exact needs regarding access to medicine, and said: