Race to Medicine

Nearly 2 billion people have no acces to basic medicines causing a cascade of preventable missery and suffering.(1) Many governments and organizations worldwide have tried to co operate against this ongoing global issue but especially for some spesific regions like Sub-Saharan Africa and South East Asia poor face extreme challenges achieving basic healthcare and medicine although it is a human right. According to Pubmed, only 48.1% of essential medicines were available in the public sector, compared with 70.3% in the private sector. While the Who benchmark is 80% availability(2). Why exactly too many people worldwide are facing a kind of preventable problem like this, what sources drive these problems and people into sickness. In this article we are going to cover the causes of the problem of medicine inaccessibility, what NGO’s and governments do to stop this issue and, future of the problem.

There are multiple causes of the issue streching from medicine prices to even geographical reasons. First of all lets take look at high medicine prices:

High prices of essential basic medicines can prevent people from accesing and further using them. According to the WHO, out of pocket spending of medicines pushes approximately 100 million people to poverty every year.

Second of all poverty and economic inequality also plays a huge role in medicine accessibilty, for example people may spend their budget on basic needs such as food and clothing rather than medicine in countries in poverty.

 Third which is huge role-player is the healthcare infrasucructre. For example, again in Sub-Saharan Africa only about 28% of healthcare facilities had reliable electricity (3).

Also, unequal distribution of pharmaceutical research has a huge impact on the problem aswell. For example, according to the World Health Organization HIV/AIDS received nearly 28 million dollars on investment in 2024, second place is tuberculosis with nearly 13.5 million dollars on investment, while yaws which is a skin disease dominant in West and Central Africa as well as the Pacific Islands received 0 dollars in investment in 2024. 

Another big cause of medicine inaccessibility is supply-chain problems; poor transportation routes manufacturing problems may prevent people from accessing essential medication. According to the UK Government about 12% of reported medicine supply problems were caused by delays in supply chain.

Medicine shortages, also add up to the current problem of medicine inaccessibility. According to WHO in 2021, one in five countries reported that essential medicines for noncommunicable diseases were out of stock. In low-income countries, up to 41% reported stockouts, compared with only 4% of high-income nations (4). 

As mentioned earlier medicine inaccessibility is a worldwide problem which needs co-operation and collabration. Many NGO’s and governments join hands against this ongoing issue. To list some examples:

In 2024, UNICEF delivered 2.787 billion vaccine doses to 99 countries, enough to reach about 45% of the world’s children under 5. UNICEF also says 79% of its supplies were procured in collaboration with UN agencies and humanitarian/development partners

If we are talking about providing medicine and vaccines to children in need, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance helps vaccinate more than half the world’s children against some of the world’s deadliest diseases, in 2024, Gavi-supported countries reached 82% DTP3 vaccination coverage, and more than 72 million children received routine vaccines through Gavi-supported programmes. Gavi also reports that 48 countries installed more than 64,000 cold-chain equipment units through its programmes(5).

The Global Fund uses large-scale procurement and publishes purchasing data so countries can compare prices, suppliers, shipping costs and other procurement information. Its programmes have contributed to 70 million lives saved since 2002(6).

As a government example, Brazil’s government runs a universal healthcare system called SUS and actually in 2024, Brazil’s Pharmacia Popular programme: Invested more than $3.3 billion, made 95% of the medicine and health supplies covered by the programme available for free and ultimately reached nearly 24.07 million people worldwide (7).

There  are multiple perspectives to keep on mind when the issue is the future of medicine inaccessibility. For example AI-made production and transportation systems can prevent possible shortages by predicting them before shortages take place. Also local production and micro-factories can lower the cost of medicine and medical production by using 3D printers and models, by doing so local producing sites would become less dependent on foreign systems as technology advances. To list some long-term point of views; extreme weather conditions have the potential to become a huge role player by affecting active pharmacological production sites which need constant temperature all throughout the year for optimal production. Countries located in the Sub-Saharan would be in big danger due to extreme heat waves. Another huge risk is the developing antibiotic resistance of some bacterias possessing possible diseases.

Medicine accessibility is fundamentally a crisis of distribution, political will, and human rights rather than a lack of global resources. As we look ahead, the barriers keeping life-saving treatments out of reach are increasingly shaped by widening economic divides, fragile geopolitical alliances, and healthcare systems buckling under the weight of climate migration and economic instability.

Leaving this challenge unaddressed risks calcifying a two-tiered global health reality where survival depends entirely on geography and income. True progress will not be measured solely by the sophistication of the molecules we invent, but by our collective willingness to dismantle the systemic inequalities that decide who lives and who is left behind.

1. Access to medicines: making market forces serve the poor. (n.d.). https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/access-to-medicines-making-market-forces-serve-the-poor?u
2. Albagir, H. A. (2026). Availability and affordability of essential medicines in African low- and middle-income countries: a systematic review and meta-analysis (2014–2025). BMC Public Health, 26(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-026-26686-w
3. Golumbeanu, R., & Knuckles, J. (2024, March 16). Powering health facilities in the aftermath of the pandemic. World Bank Blogs. https://blogs.worldbank.org/en/energy/powering-health-facilities-aftermath-pandemic?utm_source=ch
4. Home. (2026, September 9). https://www.who.int//
5. https://www.gavi.org/
6. Malaria, G. F. T. F. a. T. A. (n.d.). Price & quality reporting. The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
7. GOV.BR. (n.d.). Serviços E Informações Do Brasil. https://www.gov.br/
8. https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/access-to-medicines-making-market-forces-serve-the-poor?u
9. Albagir, H. A. (2026). Availability and affordability of essential medicines in African low- and middle-income countries: a systematic review and meta-analysis (2014–2025). BMC Public Health, 26(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-026-26686-w
10. Golumbeanu, R., & Knuckles, J. (2024, March 16). Powering health facilities in the aftermath of the pandemic. World Bank Blogs. https://blogs.worldbank.org/en/energy/powering-health-facilities-aftermath-pandemic?utm_source=ch
11. Home. (2026, September 9). https://www.who.int//
12. https://www.gavi.org/
13. Malaria, G. F. T. F. a. T. A. (n.d.). Price & quality reporting. The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
14. GOV.BR. (n.d.). Serviços E Informações Do Brasil. https://www.gov.br/