Debates About Accelerated Access to Medicines: Reality or Rhetoric?

Abstract

The current discourse surrounding accelerated access to medicines is an emotive one that is placing increased pressure on policy makers to both register and fund medicines even when there are significant questions about their safety, efficacy and cost-effectiveness. Policy makers need to offer alternative messages (such as community solidarity or nonexploitation) and, more importantly, alternative forms of access (such as publically-funded clinical trials) that address stakeholder concerns about current regulatory and reimbursement processes while protecting the interests of both current and future patients and the broader community.