Meeting Profile: United Nations high-level meeting on noncommunicable disease prevention and control
Place: New York, USA
Date: 19–20 September 2011

The four main noncommunicable diseases – cardiovascular disease, cancer, chronic lung diseases and diabetes – kill three in five people worldwide, and cause great socioeconomic harm within all countries, particularly developing nations.

The United Nations General Assembly is convening a high-level meeting on the prevention and control noncommunicable diseases, which presents a unique opportunity for the international community to take action against the epidemic, save millions of lives and enhance development initiatives.

The high-level meeting will address the prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases worldwide, with a particular focus on developmental and other challenges and social and economic impacts, particularly for developing countries.

WHO has facilitated regional consultations of Member States to give governments the opportunity to contribute, particularly by identifying the challenges posed by noncommunicable diseases in their countries and the measures that exist to start reversing the epidemic.

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/events/meetings/2011/ncd_prevention_control/en/index.html

The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) and the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA) made separate announcements coordinated to the United Nations NCD meeting.
PhRMA reported that “America’s biopharmaceutical research companies have 901 biotechnology medicines and vaccines in development to target more than 100 debilitating and life-threatening diseases, such as cancer, arthritis and diabetes, according to a new report. The medicines in development—all in either clinical trials or under Food and Drug Administration review—include 353 for cancer and related conditions,  187 for infectious diseases, 69 for autoimmune diseases and 59 for cardiovascular diseases.”
http://www.phrma.org/media/releases/over-900-biotechnology-medicines-development-targeting-more-100-diseases

IFPMA “outlined the steps it is taking to address the rise of NCDs in the developing world,” noting “top line findings of the research [see Rand Occasional Paper below] show that effective first-line NCD medicines exist and are now available in generic form, but, in many instances, these medicines are still failing to reach many people living in the developing world.” The study identified four priority areas for the research-based pharmaceutical industry to consider:
– innovative ways to improve NCD medicine adherence
– overcoming barriers to availability in poor and remote areas where large mark-ups, tax and duties, along the supply chain, as well as counterfeit products, are an issue
– improving access to primary care
– removing regulatory restrictions that hamper medicine availability in developing countries.

These priority areas provide the basis for the next four studies in the IFPMA NCD research series. The aim is that the studies will help the research-based pharmaceutical industry and its partners develop and carry out the actions that will most effectively improve access to NCD medicines in developing countries. http://www.ifpma.org/fileadmin/content/News/2011/all/IFPMA_News_Release_UN_NCDs_Summit_19Sept2011.pdf

Improving Access to Medicines for Non-Communicable Diseases in the Developing World [Rand Occasional Paper]
by Soeren Mattke, Marla C. Haims, Nono Ayivi-Guedehoussou, Emily M. Gillen, Lauren Hunter, Lisa Klautzer, Tewodaj Mengistu
Abstract [full text]
Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) now account for the majority of global morbidity and mortality and are increasingly affecting developing countries whose under-resourced health care systems also have to handle a high burden of infectious disease. To counter the global devastation caused by NCDs, the United Nations General Assembly decided to “set a new global agenda” and is convening a high-level meeting on NCDs in September 2011. In connection with this meeting, the authors of this paper took a first step toward developing a policy research agenda for improving access to NCD medicines in developing countries, a step that the research-based pharmaceutical industry, in particular, can carry forward as part of broader global efforts to combat NCD. The authors provide a framework for understanding the obstacles to access for NCD medicines, review specific issues to be confronted within each obstacle in the developing world, identify promising ideas for improving access to NCD medicines, and point to several highly promising areas for the research-based pharmaceutical industry to focus on as it develops its NCD policy research program in close collaboration with other key stakeholders.
http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/occasional_papers/2011/RAND_OP349.pdf