Equitable access to medicines expands when a variety of treatment options are available, including specialized versions for vulnerable populations and affordable generics.  Investments in the research and development of these treatments are incentivized by a legal ecosystem that protects innovation.   Continued innovation delivers medicines that are safer, encourages treatment adherence, and facilitates access for a diversity of patients.  Fundamentally, follow-on innovation enhances equitable access.

Key Takeaways:

• Medicines and biopharmaceutical products enhance and extend lives, providing benefits that should be widely available.  The iterative nature of biopharmaceutical innovation ensures that first-in-class innovations are improved upon through continuing innovation, a process that results in a variety of therapeutic options for patients.  
• Follow-on innovations increase the number of therapeutic options, enabling many disadvantaged and vulnerable populations to access healthcare advances that may not otherwise be available.
• The investments that generate follow-on innovations must be incentivized.  Empirical evidence establishes that innovation happens when legal and regulatory mechanisms protect innovation.  A vibrant patent system and effective enforcement are essential. 
• Follow-on innovations address disparities in health care. While affordable generic drugs address financial constraints, it is also important to facilitate access for patients with physiological constraints – such as children and geriatric patients – and those residing in resource-limited locations – such as those without access to refrigeration or trained medical personnel.   
• Follow-on innovation must be encouraged and supported.  Policymaking should be driven by rigorous empirical evidence and transparent research methodologies.   Demands to amend existing laws and regulations are misdirected unless based in facts and empirics.