Saving Lives By Opening Up Global Access To All Medicines?
Ira Pastor ideaXme longevity and aging ambassador and founder of Bioquark interviews Sjaak Vink founder and CEO TheSocialMedwork
“I’m the Chief Empowerment Officer at the disruptive health startup TheSocialMedwork.com, the first patients’ buyers club for the latest, lifesaving approved medicines”. Sjaak Vink, founder TheSocialMedwork.
Providing access to medications from anywhere
TheSocialMedwork is a social enterprise that helps people to access the latest medicines, no matter where they are located. It provides medications for people in countries where medicines are not yet available. The organisation is a registered, independent medicines intermediary sourcing each medicine for named patient use with a prescription and overseeing every aspect of the shipping, customs and delivery. TheSocialMedwork is a unique service, “the only organisation of its kind in the world doing this today. The organisation claims have helped 11,000 patients so far and strive to give everyone in the world access to the best new medicines. Patient stories here.
Ira Pastor comments:
For the last few months we’ve been profiling many of the cutting edge technologies that are in the pipeline and moving us from the 20th century “symptom treatment” model of healthcare, to a 21st century “cure model” whereby we can begin to have an impact on the chronic degenerative diseases responsible for human suffering and death, and extend health spans and lifespans.
However, we need to be honest that future is still being developed, and although we’re making a lot of progress, the development of beneficial therapies for unmet medical needs often occurs at very different paces depending on geographic territory and respective regulatory systems.
In a recent show we talked about the popular, very effective, and safe anti-diabetes drug, Metformin which was discovered in 1922, introduced as a medication in France in 1957 but didn’t make it to the United States market in 1995. 40 years is a long time to wait, especially if one is dying!
When patients do not have access to medication
Every year that goes by we watch literally millions of patients around the globe become “no-option”. We define “no-option” as any patient, with any serious medical condition:
- where “existing” standard-of-care treatment has been exhausted
- who will endure needless suffering or death without further interventions
- where effective treatments are only available outside of their present sphere of care access.
Today’s guest focuses on providing global access to medications
Sjaak Vink is the Founder & CEO, TheSocialMedwork, an organization with a mission of “Global health access for everyone”.
The SocialMedwork’s mission is to empower patients and doctors globally to access the newest and most innovative medicines that are not yet available within their country of residence but have been approved elsewhere.
Universal access to medications
They do this by utilizing existing legal processes, understanding regulations, engaging with providers and customers directly, they unlock possibilities and help patients gain access to effective medicines, regardless of where they live.
To date, TheSocialMedwork have helped thousands of patients and doctors, from over 80 countries, and have been able to deliver new medicines to patients, physicians and pharmacies across four continents.
On this show we will hear from Sjaak:
About his journey to create TheSocialMedwork and motivations for doing so.
How he manages to provide access to “elsewhere approved” innovations legally and safely.
How he has managed to navigate through the different regulations and customs requirements on a global level.
What patients and doctors can experience when they contact TheSocialMedwork.
About TheSocialMedwork’s relationship with pharma companies His future visions on the evolution of healthcare and preventative medicine.
Lastly, we hear whom he would like to meet and what he would like to discuss with this/these person/s.
TheSocialMedwork is a commercial organisation. We are informed that a number of healthcare insurance companies cover the cost of medication sourced via the organisation. We advise you to check the drug import regulations of your country and perimeters of your healthcare policy.
Find out more: https://thesocialmedwork.com
Sjaak Vink is also board member of Abigail Alliance For Better Access to Developmental Drugs.
Follow @sjaakvink @SocialMedwork @ideaxm @IraSamuelPastor
ideaXme is a podcast, ambassador and mentor programme. We also conduct a research programme to evaluate “rich connectedness” to Move the human story forward!™ ideaXme Ltd.
Credits: Ira Pastor interview video, audio and text.
