High cost of essential drugs forces millions into poverty every year

Two billion people are unable to access essential drugs, and the high cost of drugs pushes 150 million people below the poverty line each year, say the organisers of the third international conference on improving use of medicines (ICIUM).

The conference’s rapporteur, Hans Hogerzeil, professor of global health at the University of Groningen, Netherlands, told the BMJ that “appropriately used medicines are key to the health and wellbeing of individuals and to the efficient use of scarce resources in health systems.”

Last week the former director for essential medicines and pharmaceutical policies at the World Health Organization gave a briefing on the conference’s conclusions …