The economic benefits to the economies of ten high income countries being asked to support the equitable, worldwide distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, treatments and tests would be 12 times the costs, a new report has found. The study, undertaken by the global political risk research firm Eurasia Group, on behalf of the Bill and Melinda […] Continue reading ->
The UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs voted on Wednesday to remove cannabis and cannabis-derived substances from its “Schedule IV” list of the world’s most dangerous narcotics. The move comes nearly two years after the WHO recommended to the UN Secretary General that cannabis and cannabis resin be removed from Schedule IV of the 1961 Single Convention […] Continue reading ->
Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine, a cutting edge mRNA technology produced jointly with the German firm BioNTech, was authorized for use on Wednesday by the United Kingdom – making it the vaccine the first to be rolled out for commercial public use as early as next week.  The vaccine was authorised Wednesday morning for emergency use by […] Continue reading ->
Ibadan. While this year’s media coverage of the HIV epidemic has largely focused on COVID-related disruptions of services, deeper running trends and attitudes that stigmatize people found to be HIV-positive need greater attention, said US Global AIDS Coordinator and Special Representative for Global Health Diplomacy, Ambassador Deborah Birx, in a special media briefing on the […] Continue reading ->
Two groundbreaking agreements with pharma companies that should greatly expand access to WHO-recommended HIV drugs for children and adults in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) have been announced by the Geneva-based Unitaid and Medicines Patent Pool (MPP). The announcements, coinciding with World AIDS Day, celebrated on Tuesday 1 December, both involve cheaper versions or new […] Continue reading ->
WHO officials have expressed concern about yet another spike in COVID-19 infections and deaths across the Americas, following the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday, and in the run-up to Christmas – echoing concerns already being expressed by United States health authorities. The US has reported 2 million new COVID-19 cases in the past 2 weeks: a […] Continue reading ->
Moderna on Monday announced that it would immediately request emergency authorization today for its mRNA COVID-19 vaccine candidate from both the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (US FDA)  and the European Medicines Agency – as well as asking the World Health Organization for an emergency use listing.  The announcement came in a week that will […] Continue reading ->
In a politically charged series of exchanges at a Friday press briefing, World Health Organization officials pushed back against queries by a representative of China’s state-controlled CCTV, asking about whether the SARS-CoV2 virus discovered in Wuhan, China in December of 2019 could have been circulating in humans “outside of China before the outbreak in Wuhan, […] Continue reading ->