In Kenya, toxicologists and epidemiologists face a difficult choice: to pursue better-paid work to support their families, or volunteer as reviewers for vaccine clinical trials, often without the compensation needed to cover even their children’s school fees. Their dilemma underscores a broader challenge in Africa’s clinical research ecosystem. Slow, duplicative approval processes and limited regulatory […] Continue reading ->
The post-pandemic decline in infection-prevention practices, along with the broader crash in global health finance, are undermining progress against antimicrobial resistance – one of the planet’s most urgent health threats. At a recent panel discussion co-hosted by the Geneva Health Forum (GHF), leading experts from WHO, academia, biotech, and patient advocacy warned that national AMR plans […] Continue reading ->
First-ever WHO guidelines recommending the use of glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) therapies for the treatment of obesity in adults has been issued by the World Health Organization – in what the global health agency said is a “conditional” sign of approval for the cutting edge medications that have become widely popular. The new WHO recommendations go […] Continue reading ->
Artificial intelligence could compress years of drug discovery into months – helping to overcome growing drug resistance to existing treatments for malaria and other vector-borne diseases. But scientists in low-income countries are often left behind. Jeremy Burrows, Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) vice president, head of drug discovery, explains how a new open-access, AI-powered drug discovery […] Continue reading ->
Global health knowledge is expanding faster than ever, but so are confusion and inequity over who can access trustworthy information and use it to improve their lives. In a live recorded discussion at the World Health Summit in Berlin, featured in the latest Global Health Matters podcast, Joy Phumaphi, executive secretary of the Africa Leaders […] Continue reading ->
Technological advances in Artificial Intelligence applications for healthcare are quickly outpacing regulatory and ethical safeguards, creating a dangerous gap in patient safety, warns a milestone report on AI in Health Systems, published Wednesday by the World Health Organization’s European Region (WHO/EURO). Paradoxically, the WHO’s urgent call for tighter AI regulation coincided with a far-reaching European […] Continue reading ->
The 97% cure rate for the novel compound, ganaplacide/lumefantrine in a recent Phase 3 trial offers hope for continued progress rolling back malaria even as resistance to artemisinin combination therapies (ACT) escalates. A next-generation antimalarial drug GanLum (ganaplacide/lumefantrine, KLU156) slightly outperformed a standard of care Artemisinin Combination Therapy (ACT) in a recent Phase 3 trial […] Continue reading ->
As the G-20 Health Ministers meeting takes place next week in Johannesburg, South Africa, a new global coalition is trying to put Alzheimer’s and dementia-related diseases on the priority list of the world’s major economies; and there’s one man who stands out as a driving force behind this movement. In his video “Leadership Lessons from […] Continue reading ->
Although 18% of the world’s population lives in Africa, only 3% of clinical trials are conducted on the continent – and the ambition is to increase this percentage to 15% by 2035. But this requires substantial improvements across several aspects – including more innovative trial designs and better use of digital tools – the subject […] Continue reading ->
DURBAN, South Africa — A top executive at Africa’s biggest drug company shared a few home truths with the continent’s health policymakers about the obstacles to local manufacturing at the Conference on Public Health in Africa (CPHIA) 2025. Aspen Pharmacare’s Dr Stavros Nicolaou blamed regulatory bottlenecks and procurement policies for the failure of drug manufacturers […] Continue reading ->