Shortly after the release of research showing reduced efficacy of the two-jab Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine against Omicron infection, but better protection with boosters, the World Health Organization (WHO) cautioned that more research is still needed to draw definite conclusions about vaccine strategies in the face of the new variant wave.  A South African study released […] Continue reading ->
As pandemic treaty negotiations kick off again at the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva this week, countries face a stark choice. Will they decide to move ahead on a new system that vests an independent entity with greater powers to monitor their own national alert and responses – in the name of faster pandemic […] Continue reading ->
Six months after publication of their landmark report, Make it the Last Pandemic, the co-chairs of Independent Panel have re-entered the political fray over the slow pace of urgently needed reforms to vaccine equity, pandemic finance and countries’ legal obligations – that they say are required to end the COVID-19 pandemic and head off the […] Continue reading ->
Some two-thirds of deaths of women from cervical cancer are happening in low- and middle-income countries that have not yet included human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines for girls and young women into their immunization regimes, said WHO’s Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Gheybresus on Wednesday.  He was speaking at a high level event that saw First […] Continue reading ->
While it pales in comparison to tobacco industry marketing, two new capital investment funds worth some $75 million to support low- and middle-income countries in their fight against tobacco are being created by signatories to the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and a related Protocol on illegal sales.  Together, the funds would yield an estimated […] Continue reading ->
  Signatories to the new African Medicines Agency Treaty have now reached 28 countries – more than half of the African Union’s 55 member states – with the balance tipping as Uganda signed the treaty instrument last week.   On Friday, 5 November, after more than a decade of preparations, the African Medicine Agency (AMA) treaty […] Continue reading ->
A potentially game-changing antiviral treatment for COVID-19 that can be administered orally early on, and potentially head off much more serious cases, is set to be licensed for generic production in most low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), in an unprecedented breakthrough in access to a new COVID treatment.   The historic deal, reached between the pharma […] Continue reading ->