One of the roles of the pharmaceutical industry is to offer innovative solutions to improve healthcare outcomes, contributing to the quality of life of people and promoting healthier and more productive populations. MSD has gone beyond bringing therapeutic innovation, offering a country like Colombia the opportunity to advance initiatives that improve living conditions through a health equity perspective.
The social factors are decisive for fair access to health
For MSD, health equity means having fair and equal opportunities in access to innovative solutions that positively impact the quality of life of the population. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), social determinants of health generates an impact in the purpose of equity; factors such as economic stability, social and community context, access to education and to quality healthcare services, drive 80% of health outcomes and play a key role in health disparities.*
MSD has identified and supported initiatives that impact scenarios with social determinants of health and has contributed with projects that aims for the maternal mortality reduction, the increase of life expectancy and quality of life in vulnerable populations. We supported to healthcare institutions during the pandemic and strengthening healthcare models with a differential and intercultural approach in Colombian indigenous communities for the cervical cancer prevention.
Among the initiatives that stand out is MSD for Mothers, a global corporate social responsibility program, implemented in more than 30 countries with an investment of $500 million dollars to accelerate sustainable solutions to prevent maternal mortality in the world. In Colombia, from 2016 to 2018, MSD together with the NGO Sinergias supported initiatives on the prevention of maternal mortality in the most vulnerable and remote areas of Cauca and Bolivar, managing to impact 115,985 women and training 14,730 health professionals, thus reducing maternal mortality by 45% in 32 municipalities in these departments.
During the pandemic, MSD contributed in 2020 with the donation of medical supplies to the National Health Institute (INS) to address the health emergency, and also supported the Colombian Air Patrol to carry out health brigades in underserved and affected communities. Likewise, in 2021, resources were granted to support the project of the Ximena Rico Llano Foundation in the city of Medellín, with the aim of providing comprehensive nutritional care to children and their families who were affected by the confinement.
On the other hand, to advance to the health equity aspiration of the organization, MSD Colombia since August of this year, supported the ICESI University through a donation for its health equity project that will focus on the control of cervical cancer in the indigenous communities of Magdalena. This is a project that seeks prevention and effective access to health services through a model of care that involves the interculturality of the region.
Another of the commitments, with which MSD has traced a significant path has been the contribution to women’s cancer health, taking it as its own social cause, promoting intersectoral interventions with governments, health institutions and social organizations, to promote cooperation and access schemes that benefit women lives from the prevention to early diagnosis and timely treatment.
We are proud to have a track record of more than 75 years in Colombia and to work every day with a human approach, focused on patients, offering innovative solutions to achieve our purpose as it is to improve and save lives.
*https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789241500876
Sergey Zverev Gerente general MSD en Colombia y Ecuador
