Availability and Affordability of Medicines for Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease across Countries: Information Learned from the Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiological Study

The global burden of diabetes and cardiovascular disease (CVD) is increasing and, while cardiovascular event incidence is falling in some high-income countries (HICs), increasing rates are being observed in many middle-income countries (MICs) and low-income countries (LICs). There have been discrepancies in the availability and affordability of medicines for diabetes and cardiovascular disease among countries, of which LICs and MICs have seen low availability and affordability. The Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiological (PURE) study is a large prospective cohort study of over 200,000 people aged 35–70 years from 27 HICs, MICs, and LICs across six geographical regions (Asia, Africa, Europe, South America, North America, and the Middle East). Analyses from this study have contributed greatly to the understanding of the determinants of cardio–metabolic health in LICs and MICs especially. Here, we discuss information learned from the PURE study regarding the availability and affordability of key medicines for diabetes and cardiovascular disease.