Too often, markets fall short, and lifesaving, health‐improving products do not reach the people and communities who need them in low‐ and middle‐income countries. Photo: PATH/Ngo Thi Than Thuy.
Welcome to Markets Matter, a collection of thought leadership pieces from a diverse group of nongovernmental organizations, the private sector, and donors.
Even the most effective health products cannot save lives or improve health if they do not reach the people who want and need them. That is why markets—the systems, structures and institutions that facilitate the buying and selling of health products—matter. When markets function well and are healthy, then well‐designed, quality-assured, and affordable health products are consistently available.
Through the below roundup we hope to elevate the role well-functioning markets play in supporting access to health products. We invite you to read these expert blogs and follow #MarketsMatter to join in a lively online conversation with us.
Healthy markets: essential to improving health and saving lives
Healthy markets are critical for improving global health. Why? Because too often, lifesaving health products do not reach those who need them most. Ray Cummings explains why markets matter. Photo: PATH/Gabe Bienczycki.
Markets matter: successes in global health market dynamics
By Susan Nazzaro, senior program officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
As mortality and morbidity around the world continue to decline, a greater number of people now have access to the products and technologies they need to live healthy, productive lives. A key to achieving this is ensuring healthy markets for health produc
Making vaccine markets work: 15 years of lessons learned
By Melissa Malhame, head of Market Shaping at Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance
Melissa Malhame looks back over 15 years of work with partners to make lifesaving pentavalent vaccines more affordable and accessible for lower-income countries. Photo: Gavi/Mike Pflanz.
Leveraging markets for global health
By Wendy Taylor, director, and Amy Lin, senior market access advisor, lead market shaping at USAID’s Center for Accelerating Innovation and Impact (CII)
Wendy Taylor and Amy Lin discuss how the USAID Center for Accelerating Innovation and Impact’s work in preventing malaria and treating HIV demonstrates the impact of market shaping on accelerating access to lifesaving innovations and achieving global heal
Implementing total market approaches for family planning in Uganda
By Joyce Tamale, managing director of the Uganda Health Marketing Group
To support increased access to family planning for all Ugandans, Joyce Tamale explains how her organization, the Uganda Health Marketing Group, is working to advocate for and implement a total market approach for family planning in Uganda. Photo: PATH/Wil
Keeping all options open: how the private sector helped Senegal address its market challenges for family planning and bring back choice to women
By Dr. Priya Agrawal, executive director at Merck for Mothers
The women of Senegal can now rely on shelves stocked with an array of contraceptive methods to choose from. What changed? Dr. Priya Agrawal explains how leveraging private-sector expertise and fostering public-private partnerships can improve markets and
In Africa, markets matter for a healthy society
By Craig Williams, general manager for West Africa, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK)
Craig Williams of GlaxoSmithKline reflects on how business can contribute to strengthening health systems in Africa. Photo: GSK.
Incentives and innovative financing mechanisms matter in addressing market failures
By Erin Will Morton, director of the Global Health Technologies Coalition
Erin Will Morton highlights the critical need for market incentives and innovative financing mechanisms to accelerate the research and development of lifesaving vaccines, drugs, diagnostics, and other health tools for those who need them most. Photo: PATH
New tool helps bridge manufacturers to potential markets
By John Skibiak, director of the Reproductive Health Supplies Coalition
The Reproductive Health Supplies Coalition’s new RHTargetMarket Tool is designed to improve market visibility and reduce risk for contraceptive suppliers serving or interested in serving developing-country markets. John Skibiak explains how the tool suppo
Quality matters: cheap uterotonics—bargain or burden?
By Fiona Theunissen, project officer at Access to Maternal Health and Dr. Hans Vemer, CEO of the Concept Foundation
Dr. Hans Vemer, a former obstetrician and now CEO of the Concept Foundation, and Fiona Theunissen explain why quality matters. A single dose of a drug that works is cheaper than several doses of poor-quality drugs that don’t. Photo: Photoshare/Salma Siddi
Access to innovation: In reach for all?
By Dr. David Kaslow, vice president of product development at PATH and leader of the PATH Center for Vaccine Innovation and Access
Dr. David Kaslow of PATH explains that innovative solutions to global health problems have the potential to materially change innumerable human lives only if the people who need them most can access them. Photo: World Health Organization/CC BY.