(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
Tick-tock-tick-tock. I look nervously up at the clock in the waiting room. Finally, the door opens, and I hear my name being shouted. Confidently inside the doctor's office, the doctor says: "You just have to wait, there is no medicine. Take the time to help. ”
The time! If there is one thing I do not have when I sit in the doctor's office and feel the disease take a harder grip on my body, then it is time. I share this feeling with billions of people who lack access to necessary medicines. Either because they are too expensive or because they do not exist.
Today, the most effective treatment for some lung cancer patients costs 1,1 millions per patient. A year. Not even health systems in rich countries can afford to offer such treatment to the population. More and more often we can read about Norwegian cancer patients who do not receive the best treatment, because the state can not defend spending billions of dollars on medicine. When Norway, as one of the world's richest countries and with one of the world's largest health budgets, cannot afford – how is it in low-income countries?
Neglected diseases. Scistosomiasis is a disease that affects over 200 million people and takes over 200 lives each year. More than 000 million people live with riverine blindness, a parasitic disease that can lead to chronic infections, skin damage and blindness. These diseases are referred to as neglected diseases – there is no cure for them, and they are unknown to most Norwegians. Millions of people are affected by neglected diseases every year, diseases that affect only the poor and are therefore not researched. Many of them wait in vain. Time is running out while waiting for medicines that still do not exist or that they will never be able to afford to pay for.
The patent system gives a pharmaceutical company a patent for 20 years. 20 years where the company can set exactly the price they want. This gives few incentives to research medications for people with low purchasing power, and if there is a market, it is not visible that the price of medicines will be reduced before the pharmaceutical company's patents expire. People have been waiting a long time for the development of and making available medicines for diseases that affect countries in which the population has low purchasing power. Time does not heal all wounds. People still get their lives ruined by diseases we should have gotten rid of long ago.
Norway should take responsibility. However, there is a recipe! The Health Impact Fund (HIF) is a fund that will reward companies that develop medicines for diseases that are not profitable in the current system. The fund is a pilot project, and will show that alternative models are possible. By registering their patent in HIF, pharmaceutical companies promise to sell the medicine at cost price. The company retains the monopoly for the duration of the patent. Revenues are secured through HIF, based on the medicines' health-promoting effect. The fund will thus both reduce the price of necessary medicines, and create incentives to research medicines against diseases that are not currently being researched. There is little doubt that the system needs treatment, and HIF is a possible medicine. HIF can be the global solution that Minister of Health Bent Høie has called for, and it can be an opportunity for Norway to take the leading role in the fight to secure medicine for all. Norway can take on that leadership role by supporting the project financially.
Universal. The clock is ticking. Too many people tick it too fast. This applies to people in sub-Saharan Africa, who have their lives ruined by river blindness, and Norwegians who do not get the cancer treatment they need. The symptoms are universal and the prescription is printed. It is time for Norway to visit the pharmacy and pay for the medicine.
