During the COVID-19 pandemic, therapeutic development took a backseat to vaccines – a potentially disastrous gamble had vaccines not been found. In future pandemics, therapeutics and vaccines should be treated equally – particularly as COVID-19 treatment options remain expensive and mostly only available in high-income countries, speakers told at a webinar this week hosted by […] Continue reading ->
CAPE TOWN – Moderna tried to extract a huge price for its COVID-19 vaccine from the South African government at the height of the pandemic, according to the local NGO, Health Justice Initiative (HJI), in revelations made public this week. The US-based pharma company wanted to charge $42 per vaccine in mid-2021 when vaccines were […] Continue reading ->
Right-wing African Members of Parliament (MPs), including some of the continent’s most vociferous anti-abortion, anti-LGBTQ lawmakers, united with anti-vaxx conspiracy theorists for the first time at a conference in early May which plotted how to restrict human rights on the continent in the name of “family values”. Aside from the expected rhetoric against abortion and […] Continue reading ->
Members of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB) face another sleep-deprived week as talks on the World Health Organization’s (WHO) pandemic agreement resumed on Monday and run until Friday. There are many outstanding articles and little prospect that the agreement will be completed in time for the World Health Assembly (WHA) next week, but participants hope […] Continue reading ->
The World Health Organization (WHO) has updated its list of antibiotic-resistant bacteria that pose the greatest threat to human health, ranking the 15 families of bacteria that feature as “critical”, “high” and “medium” threats.  The Bacterial Priority Pathogens List (BPPL) 2024’s “critical” list features bacteria that are high burden, can resist treatment and spread resistance […] Continue reading ->
A $3-million “educational” deal between tobacco giant Philip Morris International (PMI) and Medscape, a medical education provider for healthcare professionals, has been abandoned after the BMJ and The Examination exposed it last month. The deal involved a PMI grant to Medscape to fund continuing medical education (CME) accredited courses on smoking cessation for doctors and […] Continue reading ->
Despite the huge human and economic cost of  COVID-19, over two years of negotiations and substantial diplomatic pressure, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB) failed to reach consensus on a pandemic agreement by Friday (10 May), the last scheduled day of negotiations before the upcoming  77th World Health Assembly (WHA). But the […] Continue reading ->