ArticleBMJ global health2025
Availability of essential medicines for non-communicable diseases: a scoping review of challenges and opportunities.
Article in BMJ global health, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Dismantling structural inequities in global prevention of childhood and adolescent non-communicable diseases.Journal of global health · 2026Article
- Bioactive Fractions fromMolecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Essential Medicines Availability, Pricing, and Stock-Outs for Hypertension and Diabetes in Private Retail Pharmacies in Zimbabwe.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionGiven the critical role of medicines in reducing the burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), we analysed factors that hinder the availability of quality medicines for managing NCDs at the point of service delivery, with a particular focus on low-income and middle-income countries.
methodsIn this scoping review, literature published in PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, the World Bank eLibrary and the WHO's Institutional Repository for Information Sharing (WHO IRIS) was collected (January 2009-May 2025). Literature was excluded if it did not specifically address NCD medicines, discussed global rather than national determinants of availability only, failed to detail supply chain inefficiencies or exclusively reported on other dimensions of access (ie, pricing/affordability, trial access, regulatory access). From cross-sectional assessments of medicine availability, mean availability was extracted, and from quantitative, interventional studies, details on the intervention and its effectiveness on NCD medicine availability were extracted. From the remaining studies, descriptions of barriers and recommendations or empirically proven interventions to improve availability were extracted and mapped according to the pharmaceutical value chain (PVC).
resultsOur review of 3348 records identified 83 eligible studies. The mean availability of NCD medicines reported in cross-sectional surveys was suboptimal (<80%) in 39 of 46 surveyed countries. We found barriers to available NCD medicines across all components of the PVC. Deficiencies in governance, financing, the health workforce, health information systems and service delivery underscore the interlinkage of various health system building blocks and stakeholders in determining availability. Nonetheless, most barriers pertained to supply chain inefficiencies, followed by challenges in regulatory systems and quality monitoring.
conclusionsThe evidence highlights the need for political commitment to NCDs, broad stakeholder involvement, integrated stock management systems and increased human resources to make NCD medicines more available to patients worldwide.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.