Three business cases for maternal health commodities
The Reproductive Health Supplies Coalition and partners just published a series of three business cases for investing in the production of high-quality magnesium sulfate, oxytocin and misoprostol in low-resource settings. Together, these three maternal health drugs are very effective at preventing maternal deaths: magnesium sulfate can treat pre-eclampsia/eclampsia, or the hypertensive disorder during pregnancy, responsible for10-15% of the world’s maternal deaths; oxytocin and misoprostol can prevent and treat postpartum hemorrhage, which occurs when a woman bleeds excessively after she gives birth. Every year, eight million women who give birth develop postpartum hemorrhage. It is the leading cause of maternal mortality and causes a quarter of all 279,000 maternal deaths that occur yearly worldwide, or approximately 69,000 deaths.
The business cases consider the barriers to ensuring a reliable supply of high-quality, affordable products for countries to procure and look into product requirements, market assessments and market shaping strategies for all three drugs.
Magnesium sulfate, misoprostol and oxytocin are three of the 13 essential reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health commodities identified by the UN Commission for Life-Saving Commodities.