This year, “Equalise” was chosen as the slogan for World AIDS day, observed 1 December. The theme is a call to action around the need to address the injustices that are fuelling the AIDS epidemic as pre-existing inequalities are exacerbated by the serious disruptions to health systems caused by the Ukraine war, COVID-19 pandemic and […] Continue reading ->
The US Trade Representative’s (USTR) office announced on Tuesday that it supports extending the deadline on whether the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Ministerial Decision on the TRIPS Agreement should be extended to COVID-19 diagnostics and therapeutics. Trade ministers adopted the Ministerial Decision on the TRIPS Agreement in June, giving members scope to diversify the production […] Continue reading ->
Indonesia’s parliament passed a new criminal code that bans extramarital sex and criminalises abortion except for rape survivors on Tuesday, Reuters reports. The code applies to both citizens and visitors, and those who have sex outside marriage face up to a year in prison. Indonesia’s economy is heavily dependent on tourism and its tourism industry […] Continue reading ->
A candidate drug for people with early Alzheimer’s disease slowed cognitive decline by about 27% over 18 months, according to a report on a phase 3 trial published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Tuesday. Lecanemab is a monoclonal antibody that is given as an intravenous infusion every two weeks, and targets a […] Continue reading ->
South Korea became the first country in the world to achieve the highest level, “maturity level 4” (ML4), in regulating medicines and vaccines.  The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) in the Republic of Korea is the only national regulatory authority to be recognised by the World Health Organization (WHO) to have advanced oversight […] Continue reading ->
Professor Hanan Balkhy will step into the shoes of Dr Mariângela Simão, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Assistant Director-General for access to medicines and health products, when she leaves on Thursday, according to WHO sources. Currently WHO Assistant Director-General of antimicrobial resistance, Balkhy served as executive director of infection prevention and control in Saudia Arabia […] Continue reading ->
The term monkeypox will be replaced by mpox within the next year, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). This follows “racist and stigmatizing language” being used in relation to the large outbreak of mpox for the first time in Europe and the US. The WHO said it had been approached by a number of […] Continue reading ->