ABSTRACT
Introduction Through the legal obligations to “respect,” “protect,” and “fulfill” the right to health, governments have implicit duties to ensure that health services are provided effectively to their populations.1 The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that by improving access to existing essential medicines and vaccines, approximately 10 million lives per year can be saved.2 One of the biggest threats to the right to health is a lack of good governance in the health system, which limits the ability of the health system to fulfill its essential functions and can create opportunities for corruption. Corruption in pharmaceutical systems compromises governments’ abilities to provide safe and reliable access to medicines for its populations and its capacity to provide the highest attainable standard of health. If there is a lack of concern for basic governance principles in health-care delivery, health-care resources may have no impact on the intended end user. Poor governance
Contents Introduction ...............................................................................................................................91 What Is Corruption? ................................................................................................................. 93 What Is Good Governance? ....................................................................................................... 94 How Weak Governance Creates Opportunities for Corruption in the Pharmaceutical Sector ....................................................................................................... 95 Complexity of the Pharmaceutical System ................................................................................. 96 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 99 Acknowledgments ................................................................................................................... 100 Authors’ Notes ........................................................................................................................ 100 References ................................................................................................................................101
