Giving Compass' Take:

• Michael Seo compares the falling prices of electric vehicles and medicine haven't increased access for poorest individuals who are often in most need of medical assistance.

• What does true accessibility look like? How can philanthropy increase accessibility sustainably? 

• Find out why WHO members disagree about how to make medicine available for all. 

In access to medicines, reasonable optimism is a start. In 2015, several blockbuster new drugs to cure Hepatitis C, which affects more than three million Americans, were well over $1,000 per pill. Now, medications such as Sovaldi and Harvoni are reaching some of the world’s poorest people, many of whom earn less than several dollars a day. This is due to pharmaceutical companies negotiating directly with governments in low-income countries (LICs) to reach a price more reflective of their economic situation. Through agreements with generic drug companies and by offering discount prices to these countries, the price of these medications has reduced dramatically, in some cases up to 99 percent.

In these LICs, access for the poor comes through a public health system managed and financed by the government. But in public health systems, resources are finite, and many LICs allocate most resources to diseases such as HIV/AIDs or combatting child mortality and maternal health issues.

Therefore, expanding access to Hepatitis C drugs means doing more with the same set of resources and finances.

Until recently, committed manufacturers were conspicuously missing from both of these realms. But today, automotive companies are embracing EVs on a large scale, and pharmaceutical companies are aggressively reducing drug prices. Toyota is hoping to produce all zero-emissions vehicles by 2050, and Volvo has said that from 2019 all new models would be equipped with an electric engine. (General Motors and others haven’t committed to a date.)

However, a lower price doesn’t guarantee affordability. A Tesla Model 3 at a base sticker price of $35,000 is arguably not mass-market. And even Hepatitis C drugs reduced by 99 percent come with other costs, including laboratory tests, doctors, and nurses. This can prove too much for the poorest populations and the health systems in their countries.

Read the full article about access to medicines by Michael Seo at Stanford Social Innovation Review.