Ignacio Escolar, director of elDiario.es, received today one of the first awards presented by the Association for Fair Access to Medicines (AAJM). This recognition is due to the He leads the information and communications efforts for the digital newspaper.
Through this category, AAJM hopes to recognize the work of professionals and the media in reporting on health issues with “rigor, contrast, and truth,” as well as the “importance of disseminating and raising awareness among the public.” “A society that makes good use of and has access to necessary medicines always has as its goal the promotion of public health.”
“Ignacio Escolar has always stood up for the defense of public health and the transparency of contracts with industry,” he stressed, highlighting some information from elDiario.es such as “Health’s alliance with two pharmaceutical companies to hide Drug prices are “paid for with public funds” or “how drug companies re-launch already existing drugs at cheaper prices”.
In addition to Rodriguez Sendin himself, the event was also attended by Fernando La Mata, Honorary President of the Association; Agustín Jiménez Crespo, Mayor of Noblajas; Castilli José Bono, former President of Asia-La Mancha; Tomás Cobo, President of the University Medical Organization (OMC); Celestina Santiago, President of PACME; and Irene Jimenez from the Social Services Department of the City Council Jiménez).
The event was held at the Town Hall of the town of Toledo Noblajas and was attended by former Minister of Health Maria Luisa Cacedo, the Platform for Patients with Hepatitis C (PLAFHC), the Council of State Medical Students (CEEM) and the Immunology Service Barcelona Hospital Clinic.
Fair access, “a matter of life and death”
The Association for Equitable Access to Medicines is a voluntary, not-for-profit entity dedicated to defending equitable access to safe and affordable medicines because it is not only a “matter of life and death” but also critical to “improving the quality of medicines.” Life”.
Many factors are thought to contribute to lack of access to medicines: poverty, lack of universal coverage of public health systems, and abuse of intellectual property laws or medicine patents.
“The serious problem of lack of medicines does not only exist in poor or developing countries, but has also affected so-called developed countries,” the association said.
In this regard, he believes that some pharmaceutical companies are currently in a “dominant position” due to patents granted by the government and therefore face “unbearable pressure”. These companies “break the traditional balance by setting unreasonable and abusive prices.”
“Pharmaceutical companies abuse patents by setting very high and disproportionate prices, which means that the barrier to obtaining a patent is price rather than cost. The difficulty in financing these drugs lies not with the cost of manufacturing, nor with the cost of research, but with the manufacturer The price set is 20, 30 or even 100 times higher than the manufacturing cost,” he explained. For all these reasons, it is committed to monitoring issues of access to medicines and the evolution of laboratory costs, prices and profits.