Local production of pharmaceuticals could improve access in developing countries, U.N. report says

A U.N. Conference on Trade and Development report issued last week suggested "[l]ocal production of pharmaceuticals in some poor African and Asian countries, such as Ethiopia, Uganda, and Bangladesh, has the potential to improve access to essential drugs for many of the one billion people who live in the world's least developed countries," BMJ News writes. The report notes that local pharmaceutical manufacturing development must focus on public health, and investment in the sector "would boost the prospects to manufacture locally cheaper generic medicines to treat a range of infectious illness such as HIV/AIDS, malaria, and neglected tropical diseases, as well as chronic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, and cancers" (Zarocostas, 5/18).