Making partnerships work for health, focusing on low-income countries

Klaus Brill Panel 1: Involvement of the private sector – cooperation and coordination
1. Social marketing
Bayer Schering Pharma has already
been involved in the ‘Social Marketing
<strong>for</strong> Change’ project, called SOMARC
<strong>for</strong> short, since the 1980s. This project
was developed by the USAID and is organized
as follows: companies <strong>work</strong>ing
within the project are prepared to offer
a specific product in a selected developing
country to a considerably reduced
price. This there<strong>for</strong>e enables women on
low incomes to af<strong>for</strong>d the product. In
return, the organization – in this case
the USAID – provides support by instigating
market development measures
and offering education campaigns and
training programmes.
2. Cooperation with nongovernmental
organizations (NGOs)
Over the years, non-governmental organizations
have successfully established
family planning programmes that
have improved access to contraceptives
and made them more widely available.
Bayer Schering Pharma has also been
active here in partnership with corresponding
NGOs. Partners with large
net<strong>work</strong>s in the field of family planning
include the United Nations Population
Fund (UNFPA), the International
Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF),
Population Services International (PSI)
and Marie Stopes International (MSI).
The NGO model is intended to reach as
many young people women and men as
possible through education and market-
ing campaigns so that the number of
users of family planning methods increases
further. These programmes are
funded by the public and non-public
sectors. In this cooperative model,
the contraceptives are provided by the
NGOs either free of charge or <strong>for</strong> an extremely
low price.
‘Lessons learned’ from both models
Both methods provide elementary cornerstones
in disseminating family planning
methods and making them available
to a greater number of women.
However, a perquisite <strong>for</strong> the success
and sustainability of the family planning
programmes is the continued provision
of funding during financial crises.
In terms of sustainability, the following
aspects should be considered:
The projects initiated by the various
family planning organizations can be
deemed to be sustainable and viable in
the long term if long-term financing is
secured and companies and NGOs provide
a sustained basis <strong>for</strong> cooperation.
This improves the provision of contraceptives
(planning security <strong>for</strong> both
partners) and facilitates market development
measures that extend beyond
the respective project phase. In other
words: develop strong <strong>partnerships</strong>.
In both models, the contraceptives are
provided free of charge or at cost price.
This means that most of these schemes
are not in themselves commercially viable
in the long term but are dependent
on subsidies.
This in turn means that it is often not
possible to guarantee the sustainability
of the projects since the projects mostly
do not provide measures to guarantee
the continued existence in the market
on completion of the project phase.
A new approach: ‘2nd tier marketing’
In addition to family planning programmes
based on financial support,
new approaches can help increase the
availability of the contraceptives while
at the same time considerably anchoring
the concept of sustainability
in terms of ‘lessons learned’ and ‘best
practices’. We there<strong>for</strong>e need approaches
which, following a phase of financial
support, are able to pay <strong>for</strong> themselves
commercially.
The ‘2nd tier marketing’ approach provides
such as possibility <strong>for</strong> Bayer Schering
Pharma: a worldwide available and
proven oral contraceptive (Microgynon)
is being launched on the market in developing
countries and made available
at an af<strong>for</strong>dable price to women with
low to middle incomes on a sustainable
and permanent basis. The price is greater
than is usual <strong>for</strong> a social marketing
project but nevertheless significantly
lower than the standard brands in socalled
high-price private markets, also
known as ‘first tier’ markets. Particu-
larly middle class women in developing
countries benefit from such a marketing
and sales model. Since this ‘2nd
tier marketing’ model can also achieve
100 percent commercial self-sufficiency,
this approach is also 100 percent sustainable.
With USAID we have concluded a collaboration
agreement as the first industrial
partner. This partnership in ‘2nd tier
marketing’, which is called the ‘Bayer
Schering Pharma Contraceptive Security
Initiative’, will enable a large number
of women in first of all 11 African countries
to access high quality reliable hormonal
contraceptives. The pilot project
is beginning in Ethiopia, Tanzania and
Uganda and will then be extended to
other countries. If this marketing and
sales approach proves successful, we
also have plans to extend this model to
other products.
Conclusions
Strong private-public <strong>partnerships</strong> make
a valuable contribution to achieving the
MDGs. Here the proven family planning
programmes must receive long-term financial
support and new approaches,
such as the Bayer Schering Pharma
Contraceptive Security Initiative, must
provide additional impetus.
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