Be-cause Health & QUAMED literature updates
Ref. Twesigye G, Hafner T, Guzman J. Making the investment case for national regulatory authorities. J Pharm Pol Practices 2021: 14-16; https://doi.org/10.1186/s40545-021-00299-7
Dear Friend,
In the attached paper, Twesigye and colleagues make an important case that there is a need to support the strengthening of national regulatory authorities (NRAs), which play an essential role to ensure access to safe, effective, quality-assured, and affordable medical products. This may be obvious for people working in/around the selection and supply of medical products, but unfortunately “the benefits of their work are often unseen and difficult to attribute, thereby making NRAs undervalued and under-resourced, particularly in low- and middle-income countries”.
The paper offers three key arguments that NRAs and other stakeholders, including our own organizations and networks, can use to advocate for greater investment in regulatory systems strengthening: (a) medical products regulation effectively safeguards public health; (b) effective regulation improves health system’s efficiency by increasing access to affordable medical products, contributing to universal health coverage; and (c) robust regulation strengthens local pharmaceutical manufacturing and bolsters pharmaceutical trade.
All this becomes particularly true and urgent in the midst of the COVID19 pandemic: local production is increasingly advocate as a way to secure access, but it can only be framed into a stringent and solid national regulatory environment. Have a nice reading,
Raffaella
PS I take this opportunity for sharing also the most recent update of our informal “quality fact sheet.”
