INCB reports on access to controlled medicines

As a contribution to the forthcoming debates at the 2016 UNGASS in New York, the INCB has published a new report on access to controlled medicines. Entitled Availability of International Controlled Drugs: Ensuring Adequate Access for Medical and Scientific Purposes: Indispensable, adequately available and not unduly restricted, the report repeats that approximately 5.5 billion people continue to have limited or no access to adequate relief for moderate to severe pain.

The report devotes sections to introducing the problem of inadequate access to painkillers, discussing the role of the conventions and access to pain relief as a human right; in addition to availability of and access to narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, as these are regulated and defined by the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs of 1961 and the Convention on Psychotropic Substances of 1971. The text also discusses the use of controlled drugs for the treatment of opioid dependence and the ensuring of controlled drugs in emergency situations.

The Board elaborates a series of conclusions and recommendations to improve what it acknowledges is a problematic and complex situation. First on the list are countries' regulatory and legislative systems. The report is a helpful one, and provides some useful advice for a context in which the UN treaty bodies and other UN organisations, member states and civil society find ground for cooperation. As such, it could offer an example of the positive potentials of the 2016 UNGASS.

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Thumbnail: INCB report