Lack of affordable basic medicine is leading to thousands of preventable deaths in childbirth
17 March 2026 London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine https://lshtm.ac.uk/themes/custom/lshtm/images/lshtm-logo-black.png
10,000 women could be saved every year if they had access to and were given the drug tranexamic acid (TXA) during childbirth, new research published in The Lancet Global Health shows.
However, TXA – a commonly used drug to reduce bleeding – is not affordable in the settings where it could have the greatest impact, raising serious questions about how it can be financed and used cost-effectively. Indeed, the study shows that TXA is unaffordable in 40% of countries that would see its benefit.
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