Description:
Pandemics & Access to Medicines Over the Internet: A 2020 Assessment In 2019, the MAG for IGF Berlin selected our proposal for a Day Zero event (Pre-Event #47 Protecting Public Health Online: Shadow Regulation & Access to Medicines), as well as our Workshop #92 (Public Health Online: Shadow Regulation-Access to Medicines). At the IGF 2020 Poland, we will build from our prior work and contextualize it within the current COVID-19 pandemic; a clear and present danger to the health and well-being, social welfare, and the global economy. COVID-19 does not respect borders or political parties. This has created global prioritization of a distinct opportunity to reshape our world, prioritize health and well-being, and to build international solidarity around access to medicines as a human right.
At the center of this chaos, the Internet has emerged as a tool that enables students to study and parents to work from their homes, consume entertainment, and learn more information about the pandemic from a global perspective than any who have come before us, a privilege and benefit that previous generations did not have. Currently, 63% of all deaths worldwide occur from non-communicable diseases – chiefly cardiovascular diseases, cancers, chronic respiratory diseases and diabetes. However, the disparate prescription prices for daily essential medicines that keep people alive boggle the mind. Why does it cost US$ 1028.00 for Zetia, for high cholesterol, in America and only US$ 259.00, in Canada? Or the asthma medicine Advair at US$ 1102.00 in the United States, but available for only US$ 436.00 in another country?
Current cross-border restrictions prevent the sale of approved pharmaceuticals, thereby impeding competition in a global marketplace, keeping prescriptions artificially high, and not in the consumer interest. Importantly, these medicines are the same products, manufactured by the same company at the same cost, so the 60-75% difference in pricing is considerable. What happens if Big Pharma were to take the same approach with anti-virals and the vaccine instrumental in the fight against COVID-19? Internet pharmacies, defined as websites that sell legally manufactured prescription medicines from licensed pharmacies upon receipt of a valid prescription and deliver the medicines through the mail directly to the patient, represent a challenge to outdated practices, rules and regulations of pharmacy, as well as with legal jurisdictions. ‘Price’ being the primary motivational factor for turning to an Internet pharmacy, ‘access’ being the second.
During a time of stay-at-home orders and mandated social distancing, the necessity of safe Internet pharmacies becomes even clearer. Drug supply problems are a critical constraint for making progress in health outcomes within the spectrum of treatable diseases globally. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) about one-third of the global population does not have regular access to medicines, so the advent of Internet pharmacy is creating opportunities for better access to medicines; at the same time, the global expansion of falsified/substandard medicines, if sufficient controls are not in place.
The WHO estimates that about 25 percent of drugs consumed in poor countries are falsified or substandard. Our workshop will bring experts who have been fighting the COVID-19 pandemic; leadership from the World Health Organization Center for Governance, Transparency, and Accountability in the Pharmaceutical sector; innovators in cross-border jurisdiction, and stalwarts in Internet governance to speak to key aspects of the pandemic and its direct impact on access to medicines and vaccines, all in the context of Internet Governance. Indeed, as we see it, the pandemic emphasizes the acute need for improved rules on access to medicines. In fact, the virus serves as a resounding call to wake up, to join together, and to care for each other.
Substantive discussions during our session will facilitate movement toward an open, transparent Internet, empowered by choice, competition and trust to shape a healthier future that, in point of fact, will attend to those in need of access to safe, affordable medicines. Our intention is to incorporate the information presented and gathered in this multi-stakeholder forum into our report, as well as to serve as a resource for our future actions. The moderator will open the session with scene-setting remarks, followed by 15 minute interventions from each of our 4 speakers.
We anticipate that our speakers’ remarks will showcase (1) the current state (pre-COVID 19) of tele-medicine/E-Health, and (2) what needs to be addressed to achieve the objective of access to medicines for all, as we move forward. Interventions from the attendees, both those online and those in the room (Q&A) will be brought forward during the final 30 minutes of the 90 minute session. Notably, we will be using a U-shaped table for the express purpose of encouraging participation and discussion with as many attendees as possible. The practical outcome of our session is detailed in Section 8 EXPECTED OUTCOMES, but it bears noting here that our objective at IGF 2020 is the development of protocols, standards and norms that can be easily implemented to enable safe and affordable access to medicines using the Internet.