October 9, 2024 (PAHO) - During PAHO's 61st Directing Council and 175th Executive Committee held the week of September 30 to October 4, 2024, Member States made strategic decisions on access to health technologies, including a resolution to reform the Regional Revolving Funds to incentivize access to priority technologies and regional production, as well as the development of a new Regional Policy to expand equitable access to high-cost and high-priced health technologies.
The need to address the challenges of access to high-cost technologies has been supported by Member States, such as Argentina, Brazil, Bahamas, Costa Rica, Cuba, El Salvador, Panama and Uruguay, which actively participated in the discussion and reiterated the importance of this topic during the approval of the Final Report on "Access and Rational Use of Medicines and Other Strategic and High-Cost Technologies".
For the preparation of the Final Report, a questionnaire was sent to Member States. The information was complemented with technical cooperation experiences, additional consultations, and reviews of literature and public documents on regional and global experiences in efforts to increase access to health technologies. The final report highlighted progress made in the implementation of national policies on access to medicines and medical devices, innovative financing mechanisms, as well as evidence-based technology assessment processes. It also highlighted challenges, including the lack of integrated policies and adequate regulatory frameworks, transparency and competition. The report also recognized the increase in processes of judicialization of health technologies in the region.
Judit Rius Sanjuan, Director of the Department of Innovation, Access to Medicines and Health Technologies (IMT), acknowledged that access gaps are global, but highlighted the disparities in and between countries in the Region, including the high prices of some technologies and the non-inclusion of countries in the region in global access mechanisms. The importance of strengthening and innovating the technical cooperation that PAHO provides in access to health technologies was highlighted, advancing in comprehensive and multisectoral public policies, which consider the entire life cycle of technologies, including innovation, production and regulation.
The design and consultation process for the new Regional Policy on Access to High-Cost and High-Price Health Technologies will begin in November 2024, with the aim of presenting a proposed Policy and Resolution for discussion and consideration by the PAHO Directing Council in September 2025.
