Activists Plan Efforts to Increase Access to Essential Medicines in Eastern Europe and Central Asia

The Open Society Public Health Program sponsored a workshop on access to essential medicines in Eastern Europe and Central Asia on September 8-11, 2010 in Vilnius, Lithuania. The workshop brought together key Russian-speaking advocates and organizations from the region, with the goals of building the knowledge and skills necessary to run national campaigns for access to medicines (including price reduction and quality control of medicines), sharing lessons learned and good practices from ongoing initiatives on access to medicines and Hepatitis C (HCV) treatment, and guiding the Access to Essential Medicines Initiative work plan in the region for 2011.

The workshop combined presentations, discussions, and practical exercises focused on the topics of HCV advocacy, lowering costs of medicines, obtaining national funding for medicines, and the use of domestic drug manufacturing. Workshop participants were also given the opportunity to present their project plans for 2011 and receive constructive feedback from experts in the field.