Routine vaccine campaigns, suspended worldwide in the wake of COVID-19 lockdowns, must be resumed immediately or else some countries could face a big surge in deaths from other preventable diseases, said Seth Berkley, CEO of Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance. Speaking at a press briefing Thursday, Berkley warned that routine immunizations for other infectious diseases such […] Continue reading ->
Some 33 Members of the European Parliament released an open letter Friday urging top leadership in the European Commission (EC) to prohibit exclusive licensing for COVID-19 products developed with European Union (EU) grants, and demanding transparency in the research and development pipeline to ensure affordability commitments are met.  In a separate letter signed by 37 […] Continue reading ->
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Wellcome Trust, and Mastercard on Tuesday announced a US $125 million commitment of seed funding to a new COVID-19 Treatment Accelerator – whose aim as its name implies, will be to speed up the development of urgently needed drugs to treat people infected with COVID-19. Just hours later, the […] Continue reading ->
Former general director of the Italian Medicines Agency (AIFA) Luca Li Bassi was awarded the 2019 “International Transparency in Medicines Policies Awards” by the French civil society watchdog group l’Observatoire Médicaments Transparences (the Observatory for Transparency in Medicines), for his efforts in negotiating a milestone World Health Assembly resolution in May 2019 supporting more public […] Continue reading ->
“We all have a vested interest to stop this epidemic,” says Thomas Cueni, Director General of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA). As WHO on Tuesday convenes a Global Research & Innovation Forum to rapidly ramp up R&D, Cueni spoke with Health Policy Watch  about what he describes as  “the extraordinary willingness […] Continue reading ->
Funding to develop new drugs for some of the world’s leading infectious disease killers, such as HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria, reached a record high of US $4 billion in 2018, with private sector investment driving much of the increase, according to the 2019 G-FINDER Report, which tracks such investments globally. However, investments in neglected tropical […] Continue reading ->
The low worldwide prices for antibiotics, combined with the need to carefully ration sale of any powerful new drugs that come to market to preserve their efficacy, continue to dampen industry investment in desperately-needed treatments for new drug-resistant superbugs, according to a sweeping new report by the AMR Industry Alliance, released today. While civil society […] Continue reading ->