Question

How can public sector leadership and the private sector collaborate to contribute to global health equity?

Answer 1

Underlying the bulk of global partnerships for health is the desire to bridge the inequity gap in healthcare access between rich and poor countries, especially access to essential drugs, and to develop new vaccines for diseases of prime importance to poorer nations. In particular, partnerships involving the UN agencies consider equity a primary goal as the organisation appears to have rediscovered its core equity values in recent years. But to what extent do these partnerships seek to and actually deliver on equity? Evidence of how public-private partnerships in the health sector have affected global health equity is scarce. In addition, scepticism about the profit motives of private corporations involved in these partnerships, especially pharmaceutical companies, often leads people to overlook any of their potential equity benefits. Indeed, many have criticised what they perceive to be an “open invitation” to private corporations to play a greater role in healthcare delivery, citing the risk of exacerbating current inequities in health as a major concern.

The rest of this paper considers the prospects and challenges of public-private partnerships for improving global health equity. As noted earlier, within the international health arena there are a variety of joint initiatives that merit the description of public-private partnerships. We focus specifically on global health partnerships involving private for-profit companies, particularly those in the pharmaceutical industry.