Patents are not the main roadblock to producing enough coronavirus vaccines for the world – rather the challenge is technology transfer with manufacturers, said a top official at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) on Wednesday.  His comments joined those of pharma voices in what seems to be a growing counter-trend to that of […] Continue reading ->
India has greenlighted Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine for emergency use following a severe shortage of vaccines against the coronavirus and a massive spike in cases, and is now poised to become one of the world’s largest manufacturing hubs for the vaccine with 50 million doses produced by July.  India’s aproval of a third COVID vaccine […] Continue reading ->
The World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Trade Organization (WTO) both are hosting key global meetings aimed at improving global access to COVID-19 vaccines and fair medicine prices this week behind closed doors. The WHO Fair Pricing Forum started on Tuesday and its stated aim is to activate “additional support for countries to achieve […] Continue reading ->
CAPE TOWN – South Africa has secured enough COVID-19 vaccine doses for 41 million people from Johnson and Johnson and Pfizer, but only 6 million of these will be delivered by June because of “supply constraints”, the country’s health ministry announced on Friday. Health Minister Zweli Mkhize told a civil society briefing that the vaccination […] Continue reading ->
The latest wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in India has delayed vaccine delivery to African countries and is expected to adversely affect vaccine roll-out programs and the continent’s response efforts until the third quarter of the year. The Indian government’s decision to suspend exports of the vaccines from the Serum Institute of India (SII) to […] Continue reading ->
In the past year, across all non-COVID conditions, routine health care has changed. GPs feel that acute care has been compromised due to their own changed focus, and because patients consult less frequently for non-COVID conditions.  For HIV and TB communities, both diseases exacerbated by poverty and marginalisation, these impacts are particularly acute. The World […] Continue reading ->