By Cosmas Omegoh
Officials of pharmaceutical giants Pfizer and IQVIA, days ago, rounded off their inaugural Accra Payer Summit in Ghana where they sealed a partnership with Nigerian and Ghanaian health officials with the aim of improving patients’ access to healthcare in both countries and the West African sub region.
In attendance at the event were representatives from Nigeria and Ghana’s National Health Insurance authorities and Ministries of Health, the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control, C/CAN, mPharma, private health insurance experts, hospital representatives and Nigerian and Ghanaian representatives from IQVIA and Pfizer.
Our correspondent learnt that the summit facilitated dialogue between stakeholders on how health economics and public-private partnerships were being applied in Ghana and Nigeria to improve access. The discussions set the stage for continued collaboration through knowledge exchange between both countries.
The event was followed by a visit to the Ghana’s Ministry of Health the next day for the “Support to Evidence-informed Priority Setting in Ghana (StEPS-Gh),” project where Ghana’s Essential Health Services Package was officially launched.
At the meeting, Olayinka Subair, Cluster Lead for West Africa, Pfizer, noted that “to identify the gaps in the patient journey and address them, we partner governments across West Africa as well as global health organizations in the health space. We are driving health equity through affordability programmes for those who cannot afford them, such as subscription models and flexible payment options. We have already made enormous progress towards putting affordability at the heart of our business as decades of experience working across West Africa have built our strong understanding of patients’ needs and know that barriers to access aren’t just about the price of treatments but occur throughout the patient journey.”
Naim Hage, IQVIA Director, East Africa & English-speaking West Africa observed that “IQVIA as an organization that is inspired to advance health outcomes through collaboration, with the hope of overcoming some of the biggest challenges facing global health, is passionate about continuously pushing to do more to advance public health efforts and improve health for all.