Conference Highlights "Would anyone dare to say that children who happen to be born in South Africa or India or Nicaragua deserve to suffer poverty and deprivation, while those lucky enough to be born in wealthy northern countries deserve privileges and advantages?" -President Oscar Arias Sánchez Complete speech available > Press release >

Pharmaceutical products and vaccines have revolutionized health care in industrialized countries over the past 50 years. Unfortunately, such progress is—at best—not equal in developing countries, where hundreds of millions of people lack access to even basic drugs. Millions of adults and children die each year from conditions that could have been treated or prevented if effective and affordable drugs and vaccines had been available and properly used—where and when they were needed.

The SEAM Program and Conference

With financial support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Management Sciences for Health (MSH) is working to address the issue of lack of access to essential medicines, vaccines, and other health commodities in developing countries.

This conference

• Provided an overview of the problem of lack of access, along with situational reports and case studies from several countries
• Explored possible solutions to the problem of lack of access by building on private-public sector collaboration
• Reported on progress with the SEAM Program to date
• Offered participants the opportunity to learn from internationally recognized experts and to engage in discussion of the issues

The conference format involved a combination of plenary sessions and roundtable discussions, giving participants the opportunity to both gain new knowledge and share their own experiences and ideas relating to the issues.

The information and recommendations generated by the conference will serve as input for helping to determine next steps in shaping and implementing the SEAM Program, and are now available on this website.

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