Achieving this outcome requires supporting and promoting cooperation with Member States and relevant stakeholders in efforts to generate enabling policies, strategies, and ecosystems for addressing access barriers, in an integrated and coherent manner across the full life cycle of health technologies, increasing regional innovation and production capacity, strengthening regulatory systems, supporting evidence-based decision-making, competition, transparency, and rational use. This will also require the definition of strategies across all categories of relevant health technologies, including medicines, vaccines, diagnostics, medical equipment, and other pharmaceutical and health services, such as radiological, blood, and organ transplantation services. Specifically, the following actions will be implemented:

1. Update and support the implementation of policies and strategies that improve timely access to quality, affordable, and effective health technologies, including medicines, vaccines, diagnostics, and radiological, pharmaceutical, transplant, and blood services to prevent, diagnose, treat, eliminate, and palliate diseases and other medical conditions through a comprehensive, coherent, and integrated approach.
2. Foster regional innovation, research and development, and the production of health technologies, supporting enabling environments and ecosystems for sustainable public-health-driven impact.
3. Promote adequate financing and financial protection mechanisms to foster innovation and access to health technologies and services, including the progressive elimination of out-of-pocket expenditures, based on national public health priorities and the context of each health system. Support comprehensive strategies to address the high price and cost of some health technologies, including through the promotion of competition and evidence-based decision-making.
4. Promote the development and strengthening of national, regional, and subregional regulatory systems and harmonization processes that can ensure access, regional production, and the quality, safety, and effectiveness of health technologies and services, including medicines, vaccines, and medical devices.
5. Promote sustainable, efficient, and transparent public procurement mechanisms, including PAHO’s Regional Revolving Funds, that limit fragmentation, improve availability, and take advantage of economies of scale to increase access to essential and strategic health technologies.

Key Interventions

• Provide guidance and technical cooperation to support the development and implementation of updated policies, norms, and strategies that ensure timely access to and rational use of affordable, quality-assured, and cost-effective health technologies, including but not limited to pharmaceuticals, vaccines, diagnostics, and medical devices.
• Provide technical cooperation to strengthen country capacities to manage and oversee health technologies supply chains at all levels, including down to health facilities, and promote and facilitate the use of regional procurement mechanisms to better leverage demand and increase access to safe and affordable health technologies.
• Provide technical cooperation to ensure access to pharmaceutical, blood, transplant, and radiological services, and to strengthen radiation safety.
• Foster intersectoral and interdepartmental cooperation and regional networks and other collaborative mechanisms to strengthen capacities, information sharing, and partnerships to improve governance and oversight by national health and regulatory authorities regarding the assessment, selection, incorporation, regulation, and use of health technologies.
• Provide technical cooperation to strengthen regional capacities for innovation and production of health technologies, promoting the development of enabling ecosystems and fostering strategic initiatives to increase access.