The World Health Organization has ‘pre-qualified’ Coartem® Baby, the first-ever malaria treatment for young infants of 4.5 kilograms or less. The combination treatment, now being rolled out in Ghana, aims to fill a longstanding gap in treatments available for children under the age of 5, who constitute three quarters of the estimated 610,000 malaria deaths […] Continue reading ->
Brazilian children from the Yanomami indigenous community will be the first in the world to get a single-dose paediatric treatment for relapsing malaria. The introduction of paediatric tafenoquine, developed by Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) and pharmaceutical company GSK, marks a “major step” towards closing the treatment gap for children at risk of relapsing Plasmodium […] Continue reading ->
The United States and the Global Fund will support three million people to get lenacapavir, the twice-a-year HIV injection that is almost 100% successful in preventing transmission of the virus – a million more than their previous commitment. Jeremy Lewin, US Under Secretary of State for Foreign Assistance, Humanitarian Affairs and Religious Freedom at the […] Continue reading ->
Smaller pharmaceutical companies and those outside countries with trade deals with the US will bear the brunt of President Donald Trump’s 100% tariff on imported patented pharmaceuticals and their active ingredients announced last week. The tariff will be imposed on large companies 120 days from the announcement, and in 180 days for smaller ones. Pharmaceutical […] Continue reading ->
Scientists working on new malaria drugs now have access to an open-access artificial intelligence (AI)-powered platform aimed at accelerating drug discovery, thanks to a partnership between Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) and deepmirror. Drug Design for Global Health (dd4gh) uses “both predictive and generative AI to give researchers, especially those in the most resource-limited settings, […] Continue reading ->
The Human papillomavirus (HPV35), globally associated with only 2% of invasive cervical cancers (ICC), has a disproportionately higher prevalence in sub‐Saharan Africa, reaching rates of 22-30% in some countries among women with ICC lesions, according to a new study. Recently, a high-level panel called for redoubled efforts in HPV vaccination, screening and treatment to meet […] Continue reading ->
As USAID programmes funding vital treatments for HIV/AIDS, malaria, maternal and child health, and other critical needs were imploding across Africa last year, a for-profit social enterprise startup geared up for its first real test. Using medicines procurement as its lever, the Swiss-based startup Axmed called for a radical reboot of national systems — to […] Continue reading ->
Every $1 invested in the Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) between 2000 and 2023 yielded $13 in monetised health benefits, according to a study published in The Lancet Global Health this week. MMV is a not-for-profit product development partnership (PDP) that works with public and private sector partners to discover, develop and deliver accessible and […] Continue reading ->
A dispute over technology transfer rights pushed the World Health Organization (WHO) to delay its Global Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) for further informal talks. Instead, the Executive Board approved a compromise drafted by Nepal and Ethiopia on Wednesday to reopen negotiations on intellectual property, specifically regarding “voluntary and mutually agreed technology transfers.” This […] Continue reading ->
“You start with, as in my case, with the loss of three generations of my family to various forms of Alzheimer’s or dementia.” Those were the words of George Vradenburg. For him, brain health is not an abstract policy issue. It is a lived reality that mirrors a fast-growing global crisis. This issue was the […] Continue reading ->