Country representative of World Health Organization (WHO) to the Maldives, Dr. Arwind Mathur has stated that countries in the South-East Asia region can work together to tackle medicine availability through established mechanisms.
Across the South-East Asia region, an estimated 65 million people are pushed into poverty due to out-of-pocket health-care payments, with the cost of medicines being one of the main causes. Poor-quality or unsafe medicines likewise affects the ability of the people to access the treatment they need, while weak supply chains and inefficient procurement provide similar barriers. Ensuring medicine availability was one of the key discussions held during the 70th regional committee of the WHO South East-Asia region held in the Maldives from September 6 to 10.
Speaking on Talk Maldives TV programme, aired on PSM News, Country representative of WHO to the Maldives, Dr. Arwind Mathur said regional countries can work together to tackle lack of medicine availability, through established mechanisms. The WHO Country representative noted that India, Indonesia, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in the South-East Asia region are major manufactures of medicine.
Furthermore, Dr. Arwind Mathur praised the Maldives, for its success story with a pharmacy being established in each island and with all health facilities linked, so that there are no issues of accessibility and availability of medical drugs.
Dr. Mathur said that Maldives will surely benefit from implementing these mechanisms, as it would provide opportunity to conduct bilateral discussions with medicine manufacturing countries.
WHO urges countries across the South-East Asia region to take bold action to ensure all people have access to safe, efficacious, quality and affordable medical products, laying particular emphasis on the need to leverage collective strengths via greater intercountry cooperation.