Study to improve access to medicine

Daily Graphic Pg.3, Thursday, Nov. 13, 08
Story Rebecca Quaicoe Duho & Gifty Bamfo

A two-year pilot study to help address issues of drug availability and counterfeits in Ghana was launched yesterday with the inauguration of the Medicines Transparency Alliance (MeTA), Ghana in Accra.
MeTA is a multi-stakeholder alliance working to improve access and affordability of medicines to people either due to high cost or unavailability of drugs.
Six other countries, the Philippines, Jordan, Kyrgystan, Peru, Uganda and Zambia, are also undertaking the pilot projects.
The Deputy Minister of Health, Dr (Mrs) Gladys Ashitey, who launched the MeTA, Ghana project, said Ghana was found as an enabling environment for the pilot project due to its existing enabling legislative and policy environment.
She mentioned some areas of such enabling environment as the government’s commitment to good governance, the passage of the Public Procurement Act 2003, the Whistle Blowers Act and the setting up of organisations for the collection and reporting of data on aspects of medicine supply and use such as the Food and Drugs Board (FDB), the Central Medical Stores (CMS), the Ghana National Drugs Programme (GNDP) and the Christian Health Association of Ghana (CHAG).
Dr Ashitey said the Ministry of Health’s five-year programme of work reflected the principles underpinning MeTA concepts.
The Deputy Director of DFID-Ghana, Ms Pauline Seenan, said the U.K. government had committed 7.3 million euros to underwrite the cost of MeTA pilot projects over the next 24 months in several countries, including Ghana.
“If the pilot projects go well and MeTA could add value to country efforts, the U.K. was committed to providing funds over a 10-year period to strengthen further multi-stakeholder approach,” she stated.
She expressed the hope that MeTA would contribute to improving client satisfaction, allocation and use of available resources.