13/10/2023 Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
A PACE committee is calling for human rights to be placed back at the heart of medical supply chains – pointing out that the current system for supplying drugs and other medical products is both ineffective, resulting in shortages, and discriminatory.
“Medical products cannot be governed by market rules alone,” said the Committee on Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development in a declaration unanimously adopted on the margins of the Assembly’s autumn plenary session.
The committee called for a “paradigm shift which ensures equitable access to medicines, established on the principle of non-discrimination”, and according to medical criteria authorising priority access as well as avoiding corruption, arbitrary exceptions or priority access for the rich.
“Effective and proportionate penalties on the private sector should be put into place to ensure that medical products are available to those who need them,” the committee said.