Zambian Delegation Studies Health System (Page 32)

Story: Lucy Adoma Yeboah
A NINE-member Zambian delegation is currently in Ghana to learn from the Ghanaian health authorities the best methods used in providing quality and affordable medicines.
The team will learn about integrating the various provisions under the World Trade Organisation's (WTO’s) Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) and other relevant legislation into the Zambian Intellectual Property (IP) laws.
The team is also to understudy the effective relations that exist between the various ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) which help Ghanaians to get access to medicines; the relationship between the Patent Office and the Ministry of Health (MoH), as well as the relationship between the government of Ghana and the private sector toward research and development of quality medicines.
Members of the delegation, who were drawn from various ministries in Zambia, will spend five working days which started from last Monday. They are expected to visit some of the establishments that deal with getting medicines to Ghanaians.
Addressing the team, a deputy minister of Health, Dr (Mrs) Gladys Norley Ashietey, said visits to areas such as the National Health Insurance Schemes and the country’s health facilities should help the Zambian team to learn first-hand how policies were translated to providing improved health care for the people.
Touching on issues affecting supply of medicines, the deputy minister cited the new international agreements including TRIPS and the WTO agreements on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT), as affecting access to medicines in developing countries, including Ghana.
She said there was global cry for equitable access to essential medicines for the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS.
“This also applies to access to other essential medicines, especially those for common childhood diseases, major infectious diseases and chronic conditions such as diabetes and hypertension which benefit from long-term treatment”, Dr Ashietey pointed out.
The Programme Manager of the Ghana National Drugs Programme, Mrs Martha Gyansa-Lutterodt, said a lot of progress had been made to promote access to medicine in Ghana and mentioned some of the measures put in place as the elimination of duties, tariffs and taxes on essential medicines, encouraging local production as well as including WTO/TRIPS compatible safeguards into national legislation.
She said further that what accounted for access to medicines included sustainable financing, reliable supply systems, affordable pricing, rational selection and use, adding that “all the above combine to ensure the regular availability of safe, efficacious medicines at affordable cost”.
Mrs Gyansa-Lutterodt, however, stated that in spite of the achievements of the various interventions in the health sector, difficulties still existed in ensuring equitable, secure and sustainable access to essential medicines to improve healthcare delivery in Ghana.
She reiterated that the TRIPS agreements and high cost of patented medicine were factors affecting medicine distribution in developing countries, adding that the implementation of the Artemesin Combination therapy for malaria, for example, cost Ghana about US$22 million.
“At the current high prices, Ghana would require about US$28 million to implement antiretroviral therapy for 30,000 People Living With AIDS (PLWAs)”, she pointed out.
The leader of the Zambian team, Mr Justin T. Chilambwe, said it became possible for the team to visit Ghana because of the friendship which had existed between the two countries for decades.
Mr Chilambwe, who is the Examiner (Trade Mark), Patents and Companies Regulation Office in Zambia, said Zambia was currently not TRIPS-compliant and expressed the hope that the team would gain a lot of experience to help the country to put in place the requisite laws on pharmaceutical products.