Crypto News: Out of reach

Hi, it's Chris in Mumbai. A recent report showed how impoverished people are still having trouble accessing generic medications. But first...

One in 20 people who had Covid used questionable treatments, a study has found.
People in England are being urged to get a flu jab to prevent thousands of hospital stays.
Weight-loss drugs are estimated to save airlines millions of dollars.

I cover health in India, a major global hub for the production of generic medication. So I was particularly interested by a new study that found efforts by top generic drugmakers to expand access to essential medicines are coming up short for many of the world's poorest patients.

The Access to Medicine Foundation found that one of out 50 products made by five large generic drug makers had a pricing strategy that took into account a patient's ability to pay in low-to-middle income countries. And many remain out of reach for poor people and those without insurance, despite 41 of the 50 drugs having expanded access plans.

Two of the companies listed are Indian, another potential hit for the country's $50 billion pharmaceutical sector after a series of medicine-linked tragedies — including child fatalities linked to adulterated cough syrup exported by small, privately-held Indian drugmakers.

Indian doctors have also been outraged by recent government directives ordering them to stop specific prescriptions for branded off-patent treatments — like Panadol instead of paracetamol — and barring physicians from receiving gifts or attending conferences sponsored by pharma companies. They subsequently suspended that directive.

In its reasoning, India's National Medical Commission argued that "out-of-pocket spending on medications accounts for a major proportion of public spending on health care." With discounts between 30% to 80%, prescribing non-labeled drugs may bring down costs, it said.

A farmer farming at the site for Pharma City in Hyderabad last year. The vast area in southern India is becoming a testing ground for a model that could help wean the world off its dependence on Chinese drug ingredients. Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg

The US remains the key market for most major generic players. And Access to Medicine said firms targeting the most lucrative countries might not sell in poorer ones — making availability another major barrier to access.

Price drops have also already taken a toll on bottom lines. While the report flagged cost concerns, generic drug prices have plummeted over the past decade, even leading two US generic manufacturers t0 file for bankruptcy this year.

"If you keep on putting pressure on generic pricing, what will happen?" Sudarshan Jain, the secretary general of the Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance — which represents many of the country's biggest drugmakers — told me here in Mumbai last week. "Either the quality will suffer or the access will suffer." —Chris Kay

Climate change has brought mosquitoes carrying viruses to places where they have never been found before, the New York Times reports.

The number of cholera cases worldwide doubled last year, the Washington Post says.

Men undergoing treatment for prostate cancer could be safely exposed to fewer radiotherapy sessions, the Guardian reports.

Ask us anything — well, anything health-related that is! Each week we're picking a reader question and putting it to our network of experts. So get in touch via AskPrognosis@bloomberg.net.