Access to Quality Assured Medicines for Universal Health Coverage

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) reports, more than 50 percent of the world’s population does not yet have full coverage of essential health services and 12 percent of the population spends large amounts of their household income on health. Universal health coverage (UHC) aims to provide health services to people who need them without the burden of financial hardship when paying for them. The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), specifically goal 3.8 asks countries to work towards providing “access to safe, effective, quality and affordable essential medicines and vaccines for all” . This is in support of the UHC goals of the UN member countries to ensure access to essential services, including safe, quality-assured essential medicines. 1 in 10 medical products circulating in LMICs are substandard or falsified according to a WHO estimate. WHO defines substandard medicines as “authorized medical products that fail to meet their quality standards, specifications, or both” .