The IDB has supported the governments of Latin America and the Caribbean in their efforts to improve their pharmaceutical systems. The objectives of this paper are twofold. First, it intends to present a brief description of the characteristics of the pharmaceutical sector in the region and...

It is commonly argued that in recent years pharmaceutical companies have targeted their research and development (R& D) at small improvements of existing compounds instead of riskier drastic innovations. In this paper, we show that the bias in the pharmaceutical industry toward small innovations...

This paper examines the prospects for reform of Russia’s healthcare system. It begins by exploring a number of fundamental imbalances that characterise the current half-reformed system of healthcare provision before going on to assess the government’s plans for going ahead with healthcare...

Effective coverage is a measure of health system performance that combines three aspects of health care service delivery into a single measure: need, use, and quality. In this technical note, the concept of effective coverage is explained, methodological issues are discussed and the implications...

This paper presents some of the background research that contributed to the discussions within the Inter-American Development Bank's policy and strategy regarding indigenous health issues. The paper's conceptual approach and good practice research helped focus the discussion on the importance of...

This role of faith-inspired health care providers in sub-saharan Africa and public-private partnerships is comprised of a three volume series on strengthening the evidence for faith inspired engagement in health in sub-Saharan Africa. An increasing level of interest in the role of faith in...

The turnover of the companies in North Savo in 2011 was nearly 10 billion euros, of which industry accounted for just under a third. The industrial structure of the region is not strong, but on the other hand it is not alarmingly thin either, because it does have certain successful niches. North...

A recurrent challenge in applied ethics concerns the development of principles that are both suitably general to cover various cases and sufficiently exact to guide behavior in particular instances. In business ethics, two central approaches—stockholder and stakeholder—often fail by one or...

The College Voor Zorgverzekeringen (CVZ) provides guidance to the Dutch healthcare system on funding and use of new pharmaceutical technologies. This study examined the impact of evidence, process and context factors on CVZ decisions in 2004–2009. A data set of CVZ decisions pertaining to...