Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of the recommendations in the UN High Level Panel on Access to Medicines report, published in September 2016, on stimulating research and development in underfunded areas and improving access to medicines; whether she has plans to take those recommendations forward; and if she will make a statement.

The UK government is committed to ensuring access to low cost, effective medicines in the developing world. We support the provision of essential medicines and other health products through global partnerships such as the Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM), UNITAID, Gavi the Vaccine Alliance, and the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP). We place a great emphasis on research and development of new vaccines, medicines and diagnostics for conditions that affect millions of poor people. For example, the UK is a leading investor in public-private Product Development Partnerships (PDPs), an innovative financing mechanism to stimulate research and development (R&D) where market incentives are insufficient.

We support the aims of the UN High Level Panel on Access to Medicines and welcome efforts to shed light on this important issue. However, we note that this panel of experts could not reach agreement on the best approach, given the evidence presented. Our view is that the World Health Organisation (WHO) has already undertaken a large amount of work to consider the full range of barriers that limit access to medicines, and is well placed to consider which recommendations add the most value.