The World Health Organization (WHO) believes that is possible to get 70% of the world vaccinated against COVID-19 by June – but only if wealthy countries redirect their doses and orders to poorer countries that are lagging behind. Eleven billion vaccines are needed to reach the 70% target, said WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus […] Continue reading ->
The World Health Organization (WHO) has given the go-ahead for children to get the first-ever malaria vaccine in areas where there is a high to moderate risk of infection. The vaccine, known as RTS,S, is the first to have been approved against a parasitic disease. It has been tested on 800,000 children in Ghana, Kenya […] Continue reading ->
Africans are a step closer to speedier access to newer, safer medicines following this week’s notification by 15 African Union (AU) member countries that they have formally ratified and deposited their accord to create a new African Medicines Agency (AMA). Although the AU adopted the treaty to set up the AMA back in February 2019, […] Continue reading ->
Indian generic drug manufacturers are poised to make the antiviral pill, molnupiravir, which halved hospitalisations in a trial of high-risk people with COVID-19. Merck, which developed molnupiravir in collaboration with Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, has awarded non-exclusive, voluntary licensing agreements to eight generic companies in India since April in anticipation of positive trial results. According to Merck, […] Continue reading ->
The World Health Organization (WHO) aims to eliminate bacterial meningitis by 2030, primarily by increasing access to vaccinations and treatment. This emerged at Tuesday’s launch of the first-ever global ‘roadmap’ to tackle the disease, which causes inflammation of the membranes that surround the brain and spinal cord, mainly as a result of infection from bacteria […] Continue reading ->
  New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern appealed for global cooperation to remove “environmentally harmful government agricultural subsidies”, particularly for fisheries, at the United Nations Food Systems Summit, which began on Thursday in New York. These subsidies led to “inefficient production, distorted trade environmental harm, and weakened food security”, Adern said. “We encourage constructive global […] Continue reading ->