Pediatric drug shortages as a market failure

When markets fail kids: Ensuring equitable access to pediatric medicines

Featuring Dr. Margaret Siyawamwaya

Thursday November 6, 2025 | 12 PM to 1 PM EST | Online webinar

Inadequate access to appropriate medicines contributes significantly to morbidity and mortality among children, especially in low- and middle-income countries. Children have unique needs at each stage of development, warranting access to child-appropriate medicines to improve treatment outcomes and reduce mortality rates. However, many countries continue to experience shortages of child-appropriate medicines, which represents a market failure: due to small market sizes and regulatory requirements, manufacturers often forgo product development specifically for this population. Following experiences of severe health product shortages exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic, many nations globally are investing in building local pharmaceutical manufacturing capacity. In this seminar, Dr. Siyawamwaya will discuss how pharmaceutical policies and industry initiatives in Zimbabwe and the United Kingdom affect access to medicines for children. She will examine the nexus of health policy and industry policy, as one important lens for evaluating the commercial activities of the pharmaceutical industry as they pertain to an often-overlooked population segment.

Recommended readings:

Penazzato M, Hafiz A, Morin S, Malik F, Cappello B, Cohn J, et al. Accelerating access to paediatric medicines: lessons learned from the Global Accelerator for Paediatric Formulations, a WHO-hosted network. Lancet Child Adolesc Health. 2025;9(5):337–48.

About the Speaker

Dr. Margaret Siyawamwaya

Dr. Margaret Siyawamwaya is a pharmacist and lecturer in pharmaceutical sciences at the University of Zimbabwe. Currently she is a visiting research fellow at UCL Department of Science, Technology, Engineering and Public Policy (STEaPP). Her research focuses on public policy for local manufacturing of child-appropriate medicines in Zimbabwe and the UK including exploring models of local production of medicines for children with rare diseases.