Rhodes, N and van de Pas, R (2022) Mapping buyer’s clubs; what role do they play in achieving equitable access to medicines? Global Public Health, 17 (9). pp. 1842-1853. ISSN 1744-1692
Abstract
Buyer’s clubs were first recognised during the HIV/AIDS pandemic in the 1980s and focussed on knowledge curation and distribution of treatments. In the past decade, there has been a resurgence of buyer’s clubs, mostly focussed on hepatitis C treatment and PrEP. This paper aims to increase understanding of buyer’s clubs and stimulate discussion on their role in achieving equitable access to medicines. Our proposed definition of a buyer’s club is ‘a community-led organisation or group which seeks to improve an individual’s access to medication through knowledge sharing and/or distribution as its primary goal’. The logistical and relational infrastructures of buyer’s clubs have been mapped out. Networks and communities are integral to buyer’s clubs by facilitating practical aspects of buyer’s clubs and creating a sense of community that serves as a foundation of trust. For a user to receive necessary medical support, doctors play a crucial role, yet, obtaining this support is difficult. Whilst buyer’s clubs are estimated to have enabled thousands of people to access medicines, and they run the risk of perpetuating health inequities and injustices. They may have the potential to serve as a health activism tool to stimulate sustainable changes; however, this needs to be explored further.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. |
Keywords: | Buyer’s clubs; access to medicines; distributive justice; health activism; medicine importation |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Education, Social Sciences and Law (Leeds) > School of Politics & International Studies (POLIS) (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 26 May 2023 12:54 |
Last Modified: | 26 May 2023 12:54 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17441692.2021.1959940 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Taylor & Francis |
Identification Number: | 10.1080/17441692.2021.1959940 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:199142 |
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