The same evening a thematic round table will be held and a documentary will be screened

The López Piñero Institute for the History of Medicine and Science (joint centre of the University of Valencia and CSIC), located in the Palau de Cerveró, opens the exhibition Esenciales para la vida (Esential for life) at the Manuela Solís room on 21 May at 20:00. The exhibition, which will be opened until 30 June, has been organised by the Farmacéuticos Mundi NGO, sponsored by the Valencian Government and with the support of the University of Valencia and the Spanish Research Council (CSIC). Also, it is noted that the exhibition is part of an education and awareness campaign entitled Medicamentos esenciales: recetas que salvan vidas (Essential medicines: life-saving prescriptions).

The same evening at 19:00, before the opening of the exhibition, the roundtable Medicamentos que salvan vidas will be held with the attendance of Marisa Ferrándiz, coordinator of the Degree in Farmacy (UVEG); Carmel Ferragud, researcher of the López Piñero IHMC and member of “Algemesí Solidari”; as well as representatives of Farmamundi. During the talk, the short film El medicamento, un derecho secuestrado? (Medicines, a kidnapped right?), documentary that questions the R&D system in the pharmaceutical industry and reveals corruption in the regulation and marketing of drugs, through various interviews with leading figures in the field of health.

This will be followed by the opening of the mentioned exhibition whose first aim is drawing attention to the difficulty of millions of people in having access to health care and essential medicines, just by the fact of living in an isolated rural environment or by being a women and also an indigenous. In addition, the lack of R&D in treatments for common diseases in poor countries is denounced and also the effect that copyright laws have on the health of millions of people.

A third of the global population cannot have access to the drugs they need, partly because of the lack of infrastructure and means of transport. Communities with a low population density, which are already isolated, have no possibility of access to the scarce health services that their countries offer. Through the story of María Elena, a 28 year-old woman from Guatemala who has four children, and Kavira, a woman from Siera Leone, married at the age of 15 and pregnant with her fifth child, we could know the condition of these populations to access basic health services.

Interactive gaming and “knots” with solutions

The exhibition also offers visitors a “very enlightening” interactive game where the participants, selecting various parameters such as age, gender, country, education or income, will “live” a reality of access to different drugs according to their choice and will know the possible solutions, as explained by the exhibition curator. This exhibition aims at raising visitors awareness about the importance of guaranteing access to medicines for the survival and development of the most vulnerable populations.

Facts:

• Over 90% of global diseases can be treated with more than 300 drugs, included in the Essential Medicines List established by the World Health Organization.
• In rural areas, access to health services can be 20% lower than in the cities.
• The lack of medicines distribution services and a local industry determine the geographical access to drugs.
• 70% of the world’s population living on less than a dollar a day, are women or girls. Health spending is unsustainable, therefore maternal and child mortality increases.
• Many medicines on the market do not have paediatric presentation, thus denying the right to health to children.
• According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 10% of the medicines sold worldwide are counterfeits. In impoverished countries, they represent up to 50% of the medicines sold.
• 8,000 people die every day from “forgotten” diseases, those with easy treatment but which are not profitable for the pharmaceutical industry because they affect the population with fewer resources.