Major pharmaceutical companies have made minimal progress in expanding access to essential medicines since the COVID-19 pandemic, according to an industry watchdog report released Tuesday. The 2024 Access to Medicine Index, which evaluates 20 of the world’s leading drugmakers, found that despite modest improvements from certain companies, the overall pace of change in improving availability […] Continue reading ->
CAPE TOWN – Sustainability is the priority for vaccine manufacturers that are part of the mRNA technology transfer programme established by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP). The programme was launched in 2020 to equip low and middle-income countries (LMIC) to make their own COVID-19 vaccines to address the inequity […] Continue reading ->
Government leaders from the health, environment and agriculture sectors in 57 countries adopted a 14-point plan to tackle antimicrobial resistance (AMR) at a meeting in Saudi Arabia that ended over the weekend. One of the undertakings of the Jeddah Commitment is support for the establishment of an independent panel to collect evidence about AMR.  The […] Continue reading ->
Donald Trump has named Robert F Kennedy Jr as his choice for US health secretary, putting the controversial anti-vaccine activist and environmental lawyer in line to control some of the world’s most influential health agencies. Kennedy shot to political prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic when his organisation, Children’s Health Defense, became a leading global voice […] Continue reading ->
In a breakthrough for patients with multi-drug-resistant (MDR) tuberculosis (TB), researchers shared positive trial results for a shorter, tailored alternative at the World Conference on Lung Health in Bali, Indonesia.  The insights came from the endTB-Q trial aimed at finding a simpler, less toxic, shorter regimen for fluoroquinolone-resistant MDR-TB. Fluoroquinolone is a common class of […] Continue reading ->
BAKU, Azerbaijan — Global and Indian experts at COP29 produced new evidence Thursday calling for clean air standards to become part of nations’ climate commitments, as cities across South Asia’s heavily polluted air corridor battled record-breaking smog. In Delhi, authorities closed schools up to grade 5 and halted construction as pollution levels soared to almost […] Continue reading ->
With plans underway for a new “Independent Panel” on Antimicrobial Resistance, endorsed at September’s UN High-Level AMR Meeting, the new body must become a strong scientific authority. It should have the power to “challenge” the agencies that create it and address both human and animal health factors driving drug-resistant pathogens. That was a key message […] Continue reading ->