GOOD 100: Meet Victoria Hale, Healthcare Champion for Women

Dr. Victoria Hale would like to live in a world where life-saving medicines and family planning are not privileges, but rather, as she puts it, “necessary ingredients of expanded opportunity, and fundamental to what it means to be human in the 21st century.” Hale is the founder of two nonprofit pharmaceutical companies, OneWorldHealth and Medicines360, which use commercial sales to subsidize affordable healthcare solutions for those who need them most, but face regional or financial barriers to access.

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Medicines360 believes that unfettered access leads to informed decision-making. Using a social enterprise model, the company develops stringent regulatory approved products, commercializes sales through the private sector, and then uses the profits to ensure that M360 products are affordable, available, and accessible to any woman who wants and needs them.

“We believe that everyone can make a meaningful contribution to the common good, no matter how large or small,” Hale says. “When choosing a Medicines360 product, women benefit individually and also positively impact the health and opportunities of other women. This isn’t about charity. It’s about reciprocity.”

Access to affordable and effective contraception has been a longstanding issue for women not only in the United States, but worldwide. Medicines360 is working to combat this problem by currently developing a low-cost IUD (intrauterine device) to provide women of all backgrounds and means with more safe, accessible choices.

“We chose an IUD because it is the most effective form of contraception with efficacy rates similar to sterilization, yet not permanent, affording women the ability to exercise greater control over their reproductive lives,” Hale says.

As Medicines360’s newest product moves closer toward FDA approval, Hale asks the GOOD community to not only get informed themselves, but to help inform women and girls across the nation about their contraceptive options.

Knowledge truly is power.

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