After 63 years of Independence, over 600 million people in India are still unable to procure the medicine that they need to cure them of various illnesses and for their well-being.

Having worked in the field of access to medicines there is pharmaceuticals policy problem for which CDMU felt that there is necessary for national level discussion for access to medicines in our country. At the initiative of the Community Development Medicinal Unit (CDMU), an effort was made to examine the basic reasons as to why this was so and to provide possible solutions for the amelioration of the situation. In collaboration with Health Action International-Asia Pacific (HAI-AP) & Jan Swasthya Abhiyan, a major national workshop was held in Kolkata in 19- 20 February, 2010 in which experts, health officials, representatives of voluntary organizations and activists from all over the country had their say on the various aspects connected with the problem. To reach to more organization CDMU took the initiative to organize follow-up workshop on pharmaceutical policy. The details are as follows:

Seminar on Pharmaceutical policy and access to essential medicines, September 2, 2010, Kolkata in collaboration with HAI AP
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Seminar on Pharmaceutical policy and access to essential medicines September 3, 2010, Bhubaneswar in collaboration with HAI AP and CDMU Orissa
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Seminar on Pharmaceutical policy and access to essential medicines, October 9, 2010, Siliguri in collaboration with HAI AP, DBITA, Siliguri Journalists’ Club & Indian Medical Association – Siliguri Branch
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Seminar on Pharmaceutical policy and access to essential medicines, February 19, 2011, Ranchi in collaboration with Catholic Health Association of Bihar/Jharkhand/Andaman, Social Initiatives for Growth and Networking & Voluntary Health Action for Jharkhand
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Seminar on Pharmaceutical policy and access to essential medicines, March 29, 2011, Hyderabad in collaboration with The Catholic Health Association of India & Indian Pharmaceutical Association – Andhra Pradesh Branch
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CDMU is working on access to medicines program for last 3 decades for the benefit of poor and marginalized with a vision of achieving health for all and contribute substantially for the NGOs in 3 decades. Similarly health, pharmaceutical, lobbying for implementation of WHO and Govt policy on health and pharmaceutical and sustainable healthcare financing are the key areas that CDMU is going to work in the coming days that requires sharing, coordination, guidance and support. It was strongly felt that CDMU should be a part of international network to concern and contribute meaningfully and wholeheartedly in the days to come. CDMU presently is a member of Ecumenical Pharmaceutical Network and Health Action International – Asia Pacific.