Pharmaceutical spending accounts for a large share of health spending worldwide. While pharmaceuticals are an indispensable component of effective modern health systems, and their benefits in terms of increasing life expectancy and improving quality of life are unquestionable, the large...

A lack of timely financing for purchases of vaccines and other health products impeded the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on analysis of contract signature and delivery dates in COVID-19 vaccine advance purchase agreements, this paper finds that 60-75 percent of the delay in...