Local Production of Pharmaceuticals : Industrial Policy and Access to Medicines, An Overview of Key Concepts, Issues and Opportunities for Future Research

Kaplan, Warren ; Laing, Richard

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: ADVERTISING;    ANTIBIOTICS;    ANTIHISTAMINES;    BENCHMARKING;    CHEMISTS;   

RP-ID  :  32036

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Local production of pharmaceuticals indeveloping countries may be seen as helping to stimulateindustrial policy and/or as stimulating pharmaceuticalaccess to needed medicines. However, if a developing countrywith manufacturing facilities is able to finish off bulkactive ingredients sourced from developed or other countriesat high costs, such manufacture may have no impact whateveron patient access to needed medicines. There has been somecritical thinking in the past regarding whether or not smalldeveloping countries should make their own pharmaceuticals,but no recent comprehensive summary of the issues and policyoptions. This paper summarizes the issues surrounding localproduction from a policy and public health viewpoint. Itprovides four brief country-level case studies, and reviewsthe evidence supporting the industrial policy assumptionsunderlying the goal of local production. In brief, in manyparts of the world, producing medicines domestically makeslittle economic sense. If many countries begin localproduction, the result may be less access to medicines,since economies of scale may be lost if there are productionfacilities in many countries. The document concludes byproviding a research agenda specifically designed to testassumptions about local production of pharmaceuticals.