Ethics, research and NGOs

The Global Bioethics Blog recently added a very interesting post about the ethical challenges faced by humanitarian organizations in conducting research, with a specific focus on MSF.  The following is an abbreviated version of the post, though the original is certainly worth reading:
Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF) is a humanitarian organization whose Nobel Prize winning work [...]

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 [...]

Patents are the wrong target

Much as the WHO’s IGWG draft strategy on public health, innovation and intellectual property remains unfinished with the close of the 61st World Health Assembly, so does the global discussion on this important topic.
Benetto Della Verova, a member  of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, writing in the International Herald Tribune (‘Patents are the wrong target’ ) examines [...]

Anti-IP Special Interests Continue to Pursue Strategies at IGWG that Benefit Grey Market Suppliers and Others that Profit from Their Agenda

At the World Health Organization meetings, a myriad of special interest groups are aggressively lobbying member states to loosen the definition of counterfeit medicines and to weaken intellectual property protection. Three key strategies are at the heart of the Anti-IP activists tactics o benefit generic and “grey –market” suppliers of drugs.
The first strategy is to [...]