Universal access to medicine

The current pharmaceutical R&D model is broken. Broken because it denies one in three people access to drugs they need for life-threatening diseases like cancer, AIDS and hepatitis C, because it fails to invest in research on unprofitable diseases, because new drugs are sold at exorbitant prices that gamble with patients’ lives and jeopardize health system sustainability, and because it develops drugs with little therapeutic value, resulting in a waste of public resources and scientific knowledge.

It is an inefficient, unfair and unsustainable model based on protecting intellectual property over the right to health, opaque and hijacked by the private interests of large pharmaceutical companies. Which is why Salud por Derecho wants to change it.

Salud por Derecho believes that medicine is a public good and that states are responsible for developing the drugs people need at an affordable price. Which is why we work towards a new model in which:

Research is guided by the health needs of the world population and not by market interests.

Prices are established in a transparent and fair manner and knowledge is open and shared.

Public investment is made responsibly, with conditionalities to public and private stakeholders to maximize the social return and ensure public interest.

The concept of innovation is revised and patents are neither the main incentive nor the cornerstone on which the R&D system is based.

WHAT WE HAVE CONTRIBUTED TO:

Over the past four years, we have worked with both domestic and international researchers to promote initiatives that are committed to changing the pharmaceutical research and innovation model.

We have influenced the political debate on how to respond to the issue of access to medicine in both Spain and Europe.

We have launched new processes with civil society actors, from working groups on access to medicines like GTSMI and the European Alliance for Responsible Research and Affordable Medicines to developing national advocacy campaigns like No Es Sano (It’s Not Healthy).

NO ES SANO (IT’S NOT HEALTHY) CAMPAIGN:

No Es Sano (It’s Not Healthy) is a campaign spearheaded by Salud por Derecho and driven by an alliance of organizations that includes health professionals and representatives from consumer organizations, professional associations, international cooperation organizations and scientific and professional associations.

Our goal is to foster public and political debate in Spain and build an efficient and sustainable research and development system that ensures access to medicine for people who need it at an affordable price. A transparent system in which citizens know the price of medicine and the results and costs of clinical trials; in which the State’s public investments are subject to public interest criteria; and one that is committed to R&D initiatives that do not depend exclusively on patents as an incentive.

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CATALYTIC PROJECT:

The aim of the CATALYTIC project is to involve the scientific community in reforming R&D policy towards a new model of medical innovation guided by people’s health needs and the generation of public assets.
In addition, the project aims to engage various scientific community stakeholders in the social movement to promote a new needs-driven drug research and innovation framework. It also aims to promote public interest criteria in biomedical R&D in Spain and involve leading research institutions in the public sector.

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DOCUMENTARY ON MEDICAL RESEARCH:

Medical Research: Houston, We Have a Problem is a documentary produced by Salud por Derecho. The documentary presents a chorus of experts and opinion leaders from around the world who provide chilling data on the obsolete research model and how it directly affects our health.

The documentary examines the challenge of building a fair, efficient and sustainable R&D and sale system for pharmaceuticals, offering alternatives and solutions. It is available on the Salud por Derecho website with a license that makes it possible to screen the documentary anywhere in the world.

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