# The Medicine Exists. So Why Can’t Patients Get It?

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/paul-talks-science-7078474/the-medicine-exists-so-why-can-t-patients-get-it
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/paul-talks-science-7078474/the-medicine-exists-so-why-can-t-patients-get-it.md
Podcast: [Paul Talks Science](https://stenobird.com/podcast/paul-talks-science-7078474)
Published: 2026-06-29T03:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/paul-talks-science/episodes/The-Medicine-Exists--So-Why-Cant-Patients-Get-It-e3lcrp7
Audio file: https://anchor.fm/s/f816aa78/podcast/play/122105063/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2026-5-28%2F426981021-44100-2-d5b46b4a17ab.m4a
Processing state: not_requested
JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/paul-talks-science-7078474/episodes/the-medicine-exists-so-why-can-t-patients-get-it
Duration seconds: 2357

## Resource

A medicine can exist and still not reach the patient who needs it. In this episode, Paul Adepoju speaks with Herb Riband, Executive Director of Access Accelerated, about why access to medicines often breaks down between the laboratory, the procurement system and the patient. They discuss the financing gap for non-communicable diseases, the limits of focusing only on lower prices, and why African countries are increasingly looking at market shaping, pooled procurement and stronger local systems to make medicine supply more reliable. This conversation builds on Paul’s Re:solve Global Health story, “Can market shaping improve medicine access across Africa?” Read the story here

## Actions

- request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/paul-talks-science-7078474/episodes/the-medicine-exists-so-why-can-t-patients-get-it/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.
- read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/paul-talks-science-7078474/the-medicine-exists-so-why-can-t-patients-get-it.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.

A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed.

## Transcript

Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.