Pricing of drugs and donations: options for sustainable equity pricing

Effective medicines exist to treat or alleviate many diseases which predomi nate in the developing world and cause high mortality and morbidity rates. Price should not be an obstacle preventing access to these medicines. Incre asingly, drug donations have been established by drug companies, but these are often limited in time, place or use. Measures exist which are more sust ainable and will have a greater positive impact on people's health. Princip ally, these are encouraging generic competition; adopting into national leg islation and implementing TRIPS safeguards to gain access to cheaper source s of drugs; differential pricing; creating high volume or high demand throu gh global and regional procurement; and supporting the production of qualit y generic drugs by developing countries through voluntary licenses if neede d, and facilitating technology transfer.