In a vital step forward that will help accelerate global access to COVID-19 vaccines, Gavi, the vaccine alliance raised some $400 million in donations at a high-level event on Thursday, just a week after the global COVAX facility reached 100 countries with almost 40 million vaccine doses. The event was hosted by US Secretary of […] Continue reading ->
Growing Consensus Emerging At WTO – Strengthen Supply Chain & Tech Transfer To Expand Vaccine Access
A growing consensus seems to be emerging out of this week’s high-level WTO meeting that glaring inequities in access to vaccines can be remedied by strengthening supply chains, avoiding export bans across borders, and ensuring that big pharma voluntarily transfers its vaccine technologies to poorer countries so they can produce their own vaccines. “The significant […] Continue reading ->
This past few weeks has seen a flurry of open letters from academics, politicians and NGOs dispatched to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, US President Joe Biden and other heads of state, urging their governments to support a proposal to the World Trade Organization to for a proposed “waiver” suspending intellectual property (IP) rights, and […] Continue reading ->
Gates Foundation: Technology Transfer, Not Patents Is Main Roadblock To Expanding Vaccine Production
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 ->
It is “unacceptable” that millions of people diagnosed with diabetes do not have access to insulin because of financial hardship – 100 years after the lifesaving medication was discovered. World Health Organization Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was speaking at a Global Diabetes Summit that saw the launch of a new Global Diabetes Compact […] 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 Joe Biden-Kamala Harris administration and its allies in Congress have already posted an impressive track record of early efforts to revive and champion U.S. leadership in global health. The American Rescue Plan, proposed by President Biden in January and passed in March, includes significant emergency funding to support the international COVID-19 response through initiatives […] 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 ->
African vaccine producers supply just 1% of the continent’s needs at present – but the plan is to increase this to 60% by 2040, according to John Nkengasong, Director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control (CDC). “The vision is to ensure Africa has timely access to vaccines to protect public health security, by establishing […] Continue reading ->
The European Medicines Agency is reviewing the cases of four people who developed blood clots after receiving Johnson & Johnson’s (J&J) COVID-19 vaccine, the regulator announced on Friday. “Four serious cases of unusual blood clots with low blood platelets have been reported post-vaccination with COVID-19 Vaccine Janssen. One case occurred in a clinical trial and […] Continue reading ->