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 ->
More public disclosure and information-sharing about drug prices and their R&D costs, is key to determining a fair price for essential medicines, concludes a series of five articles on fair pricing published Monday in the BMJ. The series, supported in part by the World Health Organization, highlights the increased priority drug price transparency is receiving […] Continue reading ->
[UN News] Kenya, Mozambique and Niger curbed different outbreaks of vaccine-derived poliovirus over the past 24 months which affected 14 children, said a senior WHO official on Monday. Although wild poliovirus virus has not been detected in Africa since 2016, roughly 12 countries are currently facing outbreaks of vaccine-derived poliovirus. “Ending outbreaks in the three […] Continue reading ->
Novartis has relinquished a patent granted by the European Patent Office for Kymriah, a promising new gene therapy for certain forms of leukemia, claiming the patent was no longer essential to the development and marketing of the treatment. The decision followed the moves by the Swiss-based NGO, Public Eye and the French-based Doctors of the […] Continue reading ->
The World Health Organization issued new guidelines for the treatment of multi drug-resistant (MDR) tuberculosis on Wednesday, prioritizing for the first time an all-oral treatment regimen. The new treatment recommends replacing the painful injectable drugs that patients had to endure under previous treatment guidelines with a shorter course of oral bedaquiline – one of only […] Continue reading ->
A new plan to dramatically accelerate global efforts to end tuberculosis, one of the world’s deadliest and oldest known infectious diseases, was launched Tuesday by the Stop TB Partnership in Jakarta. The fully-costed plan is based on commitments made at a 2018 United Nations High-Level Meeting on Ending TB (UNHLM) to reduce TB deaths by […] Continue reading ->
Criminal activity surrounding the manufacture, distribution and sale of falsified medicines is “on the rise” as a global health problem in many developing countries and in rich nations – especially online – but efforts to stem the growing health threat will require robust collective action by all stakeholders, a leading Novartis official warned Friday in […] Continue reading ->
The issues around access to medicines at affordable prices has galvanized civil society, the pharmaceutical industry, the research community, and politicians this year in oft-contentious debate that shows no sign of abating. A day-long session hosted by the Global Health Centre of Geneva’s Graduate Institute, and cosponsored by the Swiss Institute of Intellectual Property and […] Continue reading ->
Measles deaths are on the rise for the second year in a row, killing more than 140,000 people worldwide in 2018 according to estimates released Thursday by the World Health Organization and the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Also on Thursday, a massive measles vaccination campaign was announced in North Kivu, […] Continue reading ->