Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) member countries are being encouraged to prepare to leverage and deploy new pharmaceuticals being developed to combat the coronavirus (COVID-19).
Director of PAHO, Dr Carissa Etienne, notes that several “promising” new drugs are in late-stage development “that may help us treat COVID-19, and thus avoid hospitalisations and prevent deaths.”
Speaking during PAHO’s COVID-19 digital media briefing on Wednesday, December 15, the Director said if they are approved by the regulatory authorities, “we must be ready to leverage these technologies, building on the lessons of the last two years.”
Dr Etienne said key among the emerging COVID-19 lessons is that every decision “must be grounded in evidence.”
“We urge countries in our region to heed the advice of the World Health Organization (WHO), expert committees, scientists, and regulators whose job it is to carefully review the safety and efficacy of drugs and recommend when, where and how to deploy them,” she emphasised.
Additionally, Dr Etienne said that as new treatments gain final approvals, countries and companies must collaborate to ensure that everyone who can benefit has timely access, “at a price that our [states] can afford,” stressing that “we must be ready to deploy these… once they become available.”
Noting that procurement and supply can be “major barriers” and restrict access to innovations for those needing these most, the Director said work to expand regional production capacity must begin immediately, so countries do not remain completely dependent on pharmaceutical imports.
Dr Etienne contended that while it is encouraging that some companies developing COVID-19 antivirals have pledged to make their products available at affordable prices to the world’s poorest countries, “we worry that many of [those] that have been hardest hit by COVID-19 – including many in our region – do not qualify for these pledges.”
She maintained that without additional support, “many of our countries will be left behind.”
Pointing out that PAHO is tracking this development closely, Dr Etienne said the entity is “on deck” to support countries, international organisations, companies, and partners to find alternative solutions that guarantee access to future COVID therapeutic tools, including antivirals.
“This region has the technical expertise, a well-established manufacturing capacity, strong regulatory infrastructure, and an effective pooled procurement mechanism, via our Strategic Fund that if effectively leveraged, will help us accelerate access to COVID technologies,” she added.
Dr Etienne said for this regional effort to work, companies’ goodwill is needed to openly share these technologies and resources to all countries so that the Americas are not left behind as new tools become available.
“One of the most important lessons this pandemic has taught us is the importance of solidarity and of working together. Effective collaboration across borders enabled vaccines to be developed in record-time, variants to be identified quickly, and countries to adjust their responses, based on the latest available evidence,” she pointed out.
Dr Etienne maintained that “each time we worked together, we had breakthroughs; so sharing is central to defeating this pandemic.”