Posted on July 10, 2009 by Patients and Patents
Efforts to make newer and more costly vaccines widely available to the poorest in Africa are being hampered by a long-standing system that makes vaccines affordable to middle-income Latin American countries, reports the Financial Times.
The Pan American Health Organization’s (PAHO) revolving fund, which began in 1979, negotiates substantial discounts with manufacturers on prices in richer [...]
Filed under: Africa, Central and South America, Commentary on news & events, Public health | Tagged: access to medicines, drug pricing, GAVI Alliance, Pan-American Health Organization | Leave a Comment »
Posted on March 16, 2009 by Patients and Patents
A well-run FDA is crucial to ensuring that Americans continue to get access to the best new therapies in a timely fashion. Lengthy and costly approval periods–which average 10 years and $1 billion per product under consideration–raise important questions about whether the FDA is doing its part to make sure innovative new therapies can reach [...]
Filed under: Commentary on news & events, Innovation, North America | Tagged: access to medicines, Food and Drug Administration, Innovation | Leave a Comment »
Posted on February 4, 2009 by Patients and Patents
A recent article in Global Health Magazine (Big pharma bets on emerging economies) focuses on the increasing use of tiered pricing by pharmaceutical companies to remain competitive in the global economy.
“Such nuanced approaches to drug pricing that more closely reflect the ability to pay represent an attractive new trade-off for pharmaceutical companies: they provide greater [...]
Filed under: Public health | Tagged: access to medicines, drug pricing | Leave a Comment »
Posted on February 3, 2009 by Patients and Patents
The Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases recently announced that it has received $34 million through a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to the Sabin Vaccine Institute to step up the global effort to prevent and treat neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). These debilitating and sometimes deadly diseases affect 1.4 billion people worldwide [...]
Filed under: Public health | Tagged: access to medicines, neglected diseases | Leave a Comment »
Posted on January 9, 2009 by Patients and Patents
The Council on Foreign Relations recently posted an interesting article which discusses global trade rules for intellectual property in the context of access to essential medicines. The following is a brief overview of the article:
In 1995, members of the WTO ascribed to the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), which established minimum levels [...]
Filed under: compulsory licencing | Tagged: access to medicines, compulsory licencing, intellectual property | Leave a Comment »
Posted on December 15, 2008 by kmlybecker
Dr. Kristina M. Lybecker
The safety and efficacy of medicines is something that most patients in developed countries take for granted. Whether it’s a vaccination, prescription, or over the counter drug, most people assume that the medicines they’re getting are legitimate. While bogus drugs are most frequently found in the most vulnerable markets – those of [...]
Filed under: Counterfeit drugs, Public health | Tagged: access to medicines, Counterfeit drugs, counterfeit medicines, patient safety, World Health Assembly | Leave a Comment »
PAHO’s vaccine system hampers African efforts
Efforts to make newer and more costly vaccines widely available to the poorest in Africa are being hampered by a long-standing system that makes vaccines affordable to middle-income Latin American countries, reports the Financial Times.
The Pan American Health Organization’s (PAHO) revolving fund, which began in 1979, negotiates substantial discounts with manufacturers on prices in richer [...]
Filed under: Africa, Central and South America, Commentary on news & events, Public health | Tagged: access to medicines, drug pricing, GAVI Alliance, Pan-American Health Organization | Leave a Comment »