VSI does this by:

• Ensuring high quality misoprostol tablets are registered for sale in developing countries;
• Negotiating low prices;
• Planning for the tablets' availability through both commercial and public channels;
• Developing policies to enable their use by multiple levels of health care providers;
• Training providers -- especially those working in rural areas; and
• Conducting research to show the feasibility of alternative modes of distributing misoprostol at the village level.
  

VSI currently has two misoprostol programs: postpartum hemorrhage and post-abortion care.

Within Venture Strategies for Health and Development, these misoprostol milestones were achieved:

Policy >> At the request of governments, Venture Strategies for Health and Development cosponsored initial policy meetings in Uganda, Kenya and Nigeria highlighting the opportunity to improve women's health with misoprostol in rural areas where most of the maternal deaths occur. Meetings focus on the reality that the drugs used to control postpartum hemorrhage in hospitals cannot be used after home births because they must be administered intravenously or by injection and require refrigerated storage.

Registration >> In January 2006, with the assistance of Venture Strategies for Health and Development, Nigeria was the first country in the world to register misoprostol for postpartum hemorrhage.

Operations Research >> Responding to the requests of medical leaders in our international network, we have organized and supported studies showing the feasibility of using misoprostol to control postpartum hemorrhage after home births assisted by traditional birth attendants.

Click here for more information about the work of Venture Strategies for Health and Development to increase access to misoprostol for maternal health.