UN Report: 40% global increase in access to HIV treatment within the last year

Over 4 million people are now receiving treatment for HIV, marking a nearly 40 per cent jump from the previous year according to a new United Nations report.
The new study – produced jointly by the UN World Health Organization (WHO), the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) – said [...]

Innovative vaccine venture offers hope to less-developed countries

Britain’s largest charity, the Wellcome Trust, and pharmaceutical company Merck & Co. have joined together to create a non-profit, £90-million (about $150 million) research center in India to facilitate the development of new vaccines, “including [those for] neglected diseases for which inadequate or no vaccines exist.”  According to Nature News, “the move marks the first [...]

U.S. and other countries make H1N1 vaccine available internationally through the WHO

The United States joins Australia, Brazil, France, Italy, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland and Britain in efforts to make the H1N1 vaccine available to less-developed countries.  The White House announced yesterday that they are prepared to make 10 percent of America’s H1N1 vaccine supply available to other countries through the World Health Organization.
The recent news that [...]

Latin American countries expected to increase access, spend more on medicines

Economic growth in developing Latin American countries is expected to foster greater spending on medicines to improve access, according to a new report.  Public drug expenditure in the region is expected to continue growing, as there is a considerable level of unfulfilled demand.  The report also notes that private pharmacy sales are also surging, [...]

Tiered Pricing Enables Health for All

PAHO must accept their share of the responsibility in ensuring health for all in the 21st century. Many Latin American countries are “rich” today compared to most African states and some of their sister “south” American nations. Middle income PAHO states cannot hold much of Africa or their own poorer member countries like Haiti hostage for the self-interests of their more powerful, richer rapidly developing countries.

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 [...]

GAVI announces innovative approach to developing vaccines for developing nations

At the end of last week, the GAVI Alliance partners (the World Bank, WHO and UNICEF), five national governments and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation formally announced the first-ever Advance Market Commitment (AMC) designed to accelerate access to vaccines against pneumococcal disease.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the $1.5 billion program marks a departure [...]

New Partnership aims to deliver affordable, effective malaria drugs to the poor

A new international partnership, backed by the United Nations, hopes to put affordable malaria drugs within reach of millions of people, especially children, in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.
The rationale behind The Affordable Medicines Facility for malaria, as the new initiative is known, will be to reduce the price of effective new therapies (artemisinin combination therapies [...]

The FDA and innovation

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 [...]

Not letting the facts get in the way of a weak argument

Ensuring that patients around the world have access to safe and affordable medicines – be they brand name or generic – is an issue worthy of thoughtful global discussion and action.  But that discussion should be honest and forthright and not driven by half-truths and misrepresentation of the facts.
Recently, officials in the Netherlands exercised diligence [...]