Initiative: Modelo de Negocio Social, Sinérgico y Sustentable
Institution: Laboratorio de Hemoderivados de la Universidad Nacional de Córdoba
Problem: Many chronic illness patients in Argentina require expensive medications to survive, but do not have the economic resources or health coverage to pay for them. As such, there was a gap in access to expensive medicines for the poor and/or vulnerable, and particularly for drugs manufactured using blood products like plasma. However, plasma is discarded annually in large quantities, which wastes blood base materials for many drugs that treat chronic diseases such as hemophilia, primary immunodeficiencies, leukemia, among others. In this regard, there was a subsequent need to save a waste product like plasma and transform it into a useable resource for patients.
Solution: The Blood Products Laboratory was created to transform pathogenic residue (plasma) into safe, effective and affordable medicines for the most poor and vulnerable. To do so, the laboratory created a business model that allows it to produce, distribute and donate medicines, while creating a supply network of hospitals, public clinics, and the State that can access the affordable drugs for patients. The Laboratory further developed a Drug Donation Program that enables people without health coverage and/or economic resources to treat their illnesses with the donated medicines.
Impact: The initiative improves access to healthcare in Argentina and has expanded its operation through plasma exchange agreements with Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay and Ecuador. It integrates actors that make up the value chain of medicines, like State, hospitals, pharmaceutical industry, doctors, patients, donors and has a social impact on the most vulnerable sectors of the community by providing needed mediation at a lower to no cost. Lastly, as the prices of the medicines of the Laboratory are lower than those of its competitors, it also helps to regulate the prices of the market.