Letter From The Editor

The pharmaceutical industry has long been a topic of interest to JLME readers. For years the United States has been a dominant player in the field, and we’ve been able to publish on a range of related topics. With this supplement, we’re pleased to present a different perspective — that of pharmaceutical policies in Latin America and the Caribbean. In this supplement issue, “Rethinking Pharmaceutical Policies in Latin America and the Caribbean,” guest editors Martín Rama and Verónica Vargas and their team of co-authors discuss the growing pharmaceutical sector of this region and detail the opportunities and challenges facing particular countries with the following: biotechnology, scientific capacity, household spending, out-of-pocket spending, drug pricing, and legal obstacles. As the guest editors note, several issues have led to the reliance of medications — aging populations, chronic conditions, non-communicable diseases, etc. — and the prices for these pharmaceutical products is creating a financial burden for many patients, just as we see here in the U.S. Even with universal health care, an emphasis on R&D, an educated workforce, and policies encouraging biotechnology, the future pharmaceutical success of Latin America and the Caribbean seems to depend on how they can continue providing and producing affordable medicines, especially in an ever-growing global market. Let’s hope that for the sake of vulnerable populations Latin America and the Caribbean could become a pharmaceutical success story.