- Location
- Zoom
- Series/Type
- Alumni Event, DLSPH Event, Faculty/Staff Event, Student Event
- Format
- Online
- Dates
- November 6, 2025 from 12:00pm to 1:00pm
Links
Presented by the Centre for Global Health (CGH), Lawrence Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing & World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre for Governance, Accountability and Transparency in the Pharmaceutical Sector …
Health Inc Season 5, Episode 2 – Pediatric drug shortages as a market failure
Speaker: Dr. Margaret Siyawamwaya
Abstract: Inadequate access to appropriate medicines contributes significantly to morbidity and mortality among children, especially in low- and middle-income countries. Children have unique needs at each stage of development, warranting access to child-appropriate medicines to improve treatment outcomes and reduce mortality rates. However, many countries continue to experience shortages of child-appropriate medicines, which represents a market failure: due to small market sizes and regulatory requirements, manufacturers often forgo product development specifically for this population. Following experiences of severe health product shortages exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic, many nations globally are investing in building local pharmaceutical manufacturing capacity. In this seminar, Dr. Siyawamwaya will discuss how pharmaceutical policies and industry initiatives in Zimbabwe and the United Kingdom affect access to medicines for children. She will examine the nexus of health policy and industry policy, as one important lens for evaluating the commercial activities of the pharmaceutical industry as they pertain to an often-overlooked population segment.