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Increasing access to medicines 177
the market is constrained by the weakness of distribution mechanisms,
leading to a concomitant decrease in supply. If a medicine
stands little chance of actually reaching its intended consumer,
there is little point in risking large amounts of capital in developing
a drug specifically designed for a poorer market. As a result, certain
diseases endemic to these regions, such as the cluster of so-called
‘neglected diseases,’ 38 have failed to attract sufficient research from
commercial drugs companies. More problematic is the fact that
these same constraints also limit the distribution of all kinds of preexisting
medicines. Access to these medicines would improve if the
many barriers to access identified in this chapter were addressed as
a matter of priority.