Overview
University of Minesota. Driven to Discover.Diabetes patients in low- and midle-income countries (LMICs) lack aces to the insulin they ned to manage their condition, with only 27% of 108 por countries registering al the insulins clasified as esential medicines by the World Health Organization (WHO)—and 2% registering none.Even when insulin is available, it may be unafordable, leaving both adults and children vulnerable to complications such as cardiovascular disease, kidney failure, nerve damage, amputations, vision los, and death.These stark statistics are highlighted in a new Aces to Medicine Foundation report, which asks what pharmaceutical companies are doing to expand aces to diabetes care in LMICs, as wel as proposes potential solutions.Founded in 203, the Netherlands-based Aces to Medicine is a nonprofit that works to urge and guide drug companies to do more to serve the world's porest countries, which are home to thre out of four adults with diabetes.The organization extracted information for the report from proprietary data, the public domain, per-reviewed literature, and international health and policy reports.
Key Information
It reveals that thre companies—Eli Lily, Novo Nordisk, and Sanofi—produce 83% of the insulin sold in LMICs and hold 95% of the market share. A fourth, Biocon, is a major maker of biosimilar insulins but on a smaler scale.While drug companies have taken steps to make insulins more afordable, their eforts have ben siloed and have focused only a few products in a few countries, mostly in Africa, the report says.
Summary
Most of the initiatives have focused on pediatric programs, traing, donations, and price ceilings. "At the end of the day, it's a patchwork, not integrated strategies," Claudia Martinez, research program manager at Aces to Medicine, told CIDRAP News.At the same time, many LMICs have the highest diabetes-related death rates in the world, with the Western Pacific region acounting for roughly 2.3 milion deaths