Enhancing access to medicines and other health technologies, World Local Production Forum organized by the World Health Organization
21 June 2021
Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,
The pharmaceutical sector is a critical part of any countries’ national public health system.
UNCTAD is proud to be a partner of the World Local Production Forum. Our work in this area has focused on local production of pharmaceuticals in developing countries that lacked an established capacity in the sector. The COVID-19 crisis has amply demonstrated countries’ vulnerability in this regard. It has laid bare the global supply chain constraints for medicines, vaccines, and medical supplies.
There is an urgent need to invest more in health and pharmaceutical sector.
The pandemic also revealed the concentration of productive capacity in a few countries and regions, especially for vaccines and pharmaceutical intermediaries. Lack of geographically diversified production capacity has resulted in inequitable access to health products.
The question at hand is how can productive capacity be built in different parts of the world?
UNCTAD’s World Investment Report 2021 has surveyed 70 economies and found that restrictions on investments in health are rare. In fact, most countries have put in place policies to promote investment in the health sector.
At UNCTAD we are actively engaged in helping developing countries to build capacity in this regard. For example, we are currently implementing a project on “Investment incentives for local production of essential antibiotics in East Africa.” This project seeks to encourage countries to broaden their investment incentives to capture the special needs of the pharmaceutical sector.
However, it is important to note that investment policies alone will not be sufficient. Countries will need to overcome key challenges that limit their current capacity, which include:
- Lack of capital, technology and skills;
- Low regulatory capacity;
- Weak policy coherence;
- Small and fragmented markets; and
- Poor infrastructure and related services.
Concerted actions by all stakeholders are needed to effectively build and expand productive capacity in the health sector given the magnitude of the challenges. For that purpose, we have outlined a ten-point action plan that is further elaborated upon in the World Investment Report 2021.
These actions include:
- Investing in skills development and technological capacity;
- Sharing technologies to enable affordable mass production;
- Improving access to finance and tap into impact investment;
- Building partnerships to initiate “lighthouse” projects;
- Providing investment incentives to improve local firms’ sustainability;
- Upgrading and streamlining regulations and administration;
- Investing in infrastructure;
- Emphasizing a regional approach to reduce costs;
- Seeking funding through official development assistance; and
- Ensuring sustainability of efforts despite an unpredictable market.
The upcoming World Investment Forum will take place from 17-21 October. During this event UNCTAD will host special sessions that bring together key global players, national policy makers and investors to discuss how to put the plan into action and how to improve a strategic collaboration for vaccine production.
In closing I would like to emphasize that UNCTAD remains ready to share its expertise and build on our long history of support to developing countries and development partners.
Thank you.
