Maternal health drugs largely inaccessible to many women

Each year, more than 180,000 women die during pregnancy or childbirth from hemorrhage or pre-eclampsia/eclampsia, write the Population Council’s Saumya RamaRao and Katharine McCarthy in a recent blog post. Many of these deaths can be prevented with appropriate access to oxytocin, misoprostol and magnesium sulfate, but market barriers to maternal health drugs cause these drugs to remain inaccessible to many women. These barriers include market failures leading to an insufficient supply of quality drugs, a weak regulatory environment leading to variability in drug formulation and quality, and a lack of provider and consumer awareness of drugs and/or their appropriate use. The blog series “Increasing access to maternal and reproductive health supplies: Leveraging lessons learned in preventing maternal mortality,” is hosted by Harvard University’s Maternal Health Task Force, the Reproductive Health Supplies Coalition's Maternal Health Supplies Caucus, Family Care International, and Jhpiego’s Accelovate Program. To contribute a post, contact Katie Millar.

Category: Maternal Health Supplies Caucus