Microbicide development cannot be considered successful unless new drugs reach the women who need them. IPM is laying the groundwork now to ensure that microbicides, once developed, can quickly get into the hands of women in developing countries.

Ensuring access to drugs in developing countries can be highly challenging because of weak health systems and a lack of skilled health workers and financing. Also, new drugs have historically been designed and developed for industrialized markets, and introduced into developing countries only several years later, if at all.

IPM is committed to changing this paradigm by designing microbicides specifically for developing countries and making them available in these countries as quickly as possible. To aid this, IPM’s program of work is guided by four goals for new products:

• Availability
  
• Accessibility
  
• Acceptability
  
• Affordability

>> Read more about these guidelines and IPM’s approach to access in Supporting Access to Future Microbicides (pdf)

IPM supports its access goals by:

• Acquiring intellectual property rights early for drugs under development, which ensures that IPM will have flexibility in setting product prices and choosing manufacturers, in a way that is affordable to consumers
  
• Developing products that will meet the needs and preferences of women living in developing countries
  
• Conducting clinical trials to international regulatory and ethical standards with strong country and community participation and support
  
• Identifying strategies to expedite regulatory approval
  
• Identifying high-quality, cost-effective manufacturing options
  
• Undertaking social and policy research to inform product introduction and use
  
• Facilitating strategic partnerships (including convening the Microbicide Access Forum)