World’s poorest countries can improve access to medicines through local production, says United Nations

Local production of pharmaceuticals in some poor African and Asian countries, such as Ethiopia, Uganda, and Bangladesh, has the potential to improve access to essential drugs for many of the one billion people who live in the world’s least developed countries, says a United Nations expert report.

“A local pharmaceutical industry may contribute to meeting the goal of greater access to medicines,” concludes the study.

The report says that from a public health perspective, gains are greatest if local production increases the supply of the essential medicines for which a shortage exists.

By the same token, Zafar …