Earlier, ECUO team initiated the Regional Monitoring on Drug Supply Access (Regional Monitoring) which was conducted in 2016 involving national community representatives and HIV activists. In frames of Regional Monitoring national communities collected data on cost, availability and quality of ARVs purchased in 15 countries in EECA.
Regional Monitoring consolidated data have already been published at arv.ecuo.org. The data access is free. Regional Monitoring results are an open database containing information about drugs, manufacturers and distributors, funding sources, drugs registration, WHO prequalification, etc.
Regional Monitoring data should be useful for:
- government agencies involved in drugs procurement for state budget;
- HIV activists, communities and NGOs advocating access to HIV treatment;
- donor organizations providing funding for HIV / AIDS;
- International organizations representatives providing technical assistance and conducting advocacy activities aimed to ensure access to HIV treatment.
Regional Monitoring initiative is a part of ECUO strategy for increasing access to HIV treatment in EECA. It speaks about advocacy efforts defending universally recognized human right to health.
ECUO considers Regional Monitoring as an effective method to identify problem issues and priorities of access to HIV treatment in EECA. It is extremely important to define key aspects for further advocacy, promt response or detailed study involving highly specialized specialists, interested communities, both at the national and regional levels.
It should be marked that this is the first community purchased ARVs data systematization in EECA, and the presented database is pilot. It is obvious that collected information requires updates and additions to be comprehensive, but even now the database contains enough data to identify key trends in EECA regarding particular ARV’s cost and availability.
Today, ECUO continues to work with improving the database. It plans to hold consultations with stakeholders to identify priority topics in advocacy issues considering Regional Monitoring results.
For now, ECUO marks such key issues of increasing access to ARVs:
- The quality of ARVs, especially those produced by local producers (for example, in 2016 ECUO requested pharmacies the WHO prequalification) More
- Access to 2nd- and 3rd-line drugs of ARV regimens (according to ECUO operative analysis conducted in 2015 within the project funded by GIZ, access to 3rd-line drugs Raltegravir (trade name Isentress) in 14 EECA countries is received only by 56 people (!))
- Resources optimization by reducing ARV cost. See example.
To join filling out the database, ask clarifying questions, find the data source and make suggestions for improving the resource itself, please, contact: arv@ecuo.org.
Background:
Regional Monitoring on Drug Supply Access was carried out in frames of ECUO Regional project implemented together with EHRN within a new model for financing of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
This Regional Monitoring was conducted in September-October 2016 with support of national community representatives and ARV access activists. It’s based on a single unified tool and contains data from 15 EECA countries for the years 2015/2016. Whereas monitoring tool includes 6 modules (1 – Access to ARV, 2 – Treatment regimens, drugs registration and quality control, 3 – Registration, prices and prequalification of particular ARVs, 4 – Procurement, 5 – Deficiency, stock level and threat of disruptions, and 6 – Problem points and activity of various organizations), analysis conducted in 2016 covers just first 4 of them. It’s the first step in conducting large system monitoring in 2017 and 2018 by communities.
Unfortunately, for technical reasons the database doesn’t display information sources. But as a rule, conducting Regional Monitoring community representatives and HIV activists received information using both direct requests to relevant governmental agencies representatives and open data sources (MH sites, health surveillance services, drug agencies, insurance funds, EU portal, and other bodies and structures).