TY - JOUR
T1 - Impact of the European Union on access to medicines in low- and middle-income countries
T2 - A scoping review
AU - Perehudoff, Katrina
AU - Durán, Carlos
AU - Demchenko, Ivan
AU - Mazzanti, Valentina
AU - Parwani, Pramiti
AU - Suleman, Fatima
AU - de Ruijter, Anniek
N1 - Funding Information:
This Scoping Review coalesces literature from a range of policy areas in four UN languages and across the interrelated, yet often siloed, disciplines of public health policy, international relations, and EU law. It synthesises the current knowledge about the mechanisms and impact of EU action on pharmaceuticals in LMICs through the lens of EU global regulatory influence. Our snowball reference search cross-referenced many publications that were already retrieved through our database search, which suggests our database search is complete. Nevertheless, this study does not capture the EC's early international cooperation actions about pharmaceuticals (ongoing since 1983), and may have missed literature in other languages. The selection of Russian articles was not validated by a second researcher. This study does not investigate the impacts of individual or groups of EU Member States, the EU's global political activities within multilateral bodies (ex. WHO, WTO), nor the EU's financial support of international initiatives for access to medicines (ex. Global Fund, Covax).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Authors
PY - 2021/10
Y1 - 2021/10
N2 - This Scoping Review synthesises evidence of the impacts of European Union (EU) law, regulation, and policy on access to medicines in in non-EU low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), and the mechanisms and nature of those impacts. We searched eight scholarly databases and grey literature published between 1995-2021 in four languages. The EU exerts global influence on pharmaceuticals in LMICs in three ways: explicit agreements between EU-LMICs (ex. accession, trade, and economic agreements); LMICs' reliance on EU internal regulation, standards, or methods (ex. market authorisation); ‘soft’ forms of EU influence (ex. research funding, capacity building). This study illustrates that EU policy makers adopt measures with the potential to influence medicines in LMICs despite limited evidence of their positive and/or negative impact(s). The EU's fragmented internal and external actions in fields related to pharmaceuticals reveal the need for principles for global equitable access to medicines to guide EU policy.
AB - This Scoping Review synthesises evidence of the impacts of European Union (EU) law, regulation, and policy on access to medicines in in non-EU low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), and the mechanisms and nature of those impacts. We searched eight scholarly databases and grey literature published between 1995-2021 in four languages. The EU exerts global influence on pharmaceuticals in LMICs in three ways: explicit agreements between EU-LMICs (ex. accession, trade, and economic agreements); LMICs' reliance on EU internal regulation, standards, or methods (ex. market authorisation); ‘soft’ forms of EU influence (ex. research funding, capacity building). This study illustrates that EU policy makers adopt measures with the potential to influence medicines in LMICs despite limited evidence of their positive and/or negative impact(s). The EU's fragmented internal and external actions in fields related to pharmaceuticals reveal the need for principles for global equitable access to medicines to guide EU policy.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85124533907&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.lanepe.2021.100219
DO - 10.1016/j.lanepe.2021.100219
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:85124533907
VL - 9
JO - The Lancet Regional Health - Europe
JF - The Lancet Regional Health - Europe
M1 - 100219
ER -