On October 3rd, the Forum on Innovation and Access to the International Health Market ended in Buenos Aires. The event brought together representatives of the World Health Organization, the Global Fund, Unitaid, research institutes, regulatory bodies, public officials, international experts and industry benchmarks. The objective of the Forum was to analyze the possibilities of strengthening the local pharmaceutical industry through greater regional coordination, strategies for insertion into the market of high-cost medicines and promotion of innovation. In particular, during the event the challenges posed by HIV, malaria and tuberculosis were examined.

During the meeting, experts observed that the global health market is currently concentrated in a few countries, with little presence of Latin America. For Unitaid, the entry of new suppliers is crucial to reduce the price of medicines and make them more accessible to low- and lower-middle-income countries. Within this framework, the Forum aimed to help companies understand the dynamics and logic of public purchasing markets, encourage coordination among companies, regulatory agencies and international mechanisms, such as the WHO prequalification process. Also  they debated about the establishment of a facilitating entity in the region and ensuring the participation of companies from the region in the Global Fund’s annual supplier conference.

Argentina’s Secretary of Health, Adolfo Rubinstein, highlighted at the opening of the event the dynamism and innovative capacity of the local pharmaceutical sector in Argentina, Brazil, Chile and other countries in the region and observed that public-private collaboration can contribute to the expansion of regional participation in the global drug market. The president of the Healthy World Foundation, co-organizer of the forum, said in the same vein that the ultimate goal of the meeting was to bring the parties together and sincerice prices. “We think of a State that regulates with a cooperative attitude and an industry that innovates and is open to a collaborative mentality. Within the framework of the Forum there were also meetings between representatives of the Argentine Industrial Union, Unitaid, the Global Fund, Mundo Sano Foundation and the former Minister of Health of Brazil, Jose Temporão.