Improving access to health products and technologies has long been a priority issue for the global health community. However, in the past two decades, increased attention has been paid to whether local production could improve access to these products and technologies, including therapeutics, vaccines, diagnostics, and medical devices.
Advocates of localization consider it a mechanism for improving resilience in the supply chain and maintaining local supply. They hope that localization of goods manufacturing can improve domestic access to health products and technologies. However, the available evidence suggests localization alone is unlikely to deliver these outcomes.
The U.S. Chamber’s Global Initiative on Health and the Economy’s new report sets out to determine what drives equitable access to health products and technologies and examine whether there is evidence that local or regional manufacturing initiatives improve access equity.
Countries seeking to improve equitable access to health products and technologies should look beyond localization and instead consider a comprehensive set of policies and investments that fully address access barriers, secure supply, strengthen healthcare systems, foster regional collaboration, and align resources with policies that work to improve the resiliency of the global supply chain for health products and technologies.
The bottom line: By introducing policies to address barriers to access, policymakers can simultaneously improve access and foster the development of a local health technology industry by incentivizing global and local manufacturers to invest in innovative activities.
