Only a month after a hotly-contested World Health Assembly resolution touched off a debate around “price transparency” as a way to improve access to medicines, a new controversy over how to stimulate access has emerged in another UN Forum, the Human Rights Council. This time the debate is around ways to “delink” incentives for the […] Continue reading ->
The European Commission and European Union medicines regulatory agencies sent an open letter to all sponsors of EU-based clinical trials to remind them of their obligation to publish the results of the trials – both positive and negative – in a public database. The open letter by the European Commission (EC), the European Medicines Agency […] Continue reading ->
The Global Antibiotic Research & Development Partnership (GARDP) has announced its new “5 BY 25” strategy to mobilise global stakeholders to raise the €500 million needed to develop and deliver five new antibiotic treatments by 2025, to help tackle antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Drug-resistant infections already cause at least 700,000 deaths globally each year, and affect […] Continue reading ->
In a surprise appearance before the 2019 Congress of the International Council of Nurses, WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that investing in a stronger nursing workforce is essential for achieving universal health coverage (UHC). He proposed that “every country bring one nurse and one midwife to the World Health Assembly next year,” as […] Continue reading ->
Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, just finalised its new strategic plan for 2021-2025, which aims to reach communities missed by previous immunisation efforts, including those most marginalised by poverty, geography and conflict. It also prioritises sustainability of vaccine programmes through co-financing arrangements with countries to build domestic investment in health and reduce reliance on Gavi funding. […] Continue reading ->
[WHO News Release] Maputo/Geneva – The number of people at risk of trachoma – the world’s leading infectious cause of blindness – has fallen from 1.5 billion in 2002 to just over 142 million in 2019, a reduction of 91%, WHO has reported. New data presented today at the 22nd meeting of the WHO Alliance […] Continue reading ->
A sensitive, closed-door selection of the new Executive Director for UNAIDS has kicked up a noisy social media debate among a number of leading global health figures, who questioned whether a separate bureaucracy for one disease, founded at the height of the AIDS epidemic, remains justified today – when bigger global health threats now loom. […] Continue reading ->
[By Reuters] NEW YORK (Reuters) – Merck & Co Chief Executive Ken Frazier said on Thursday a rule to base the price the U.S. government pays for some prescription drugs in it[s] Medicare program on lower prices in other countries would face legal challenges if adopted. U.S. President Donald Trump said last year that one […] Continue reading ->
A United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) draft resolution on access to medicines and vaccines calls for making public health needs more central to the research and development (R&D) of new health products, and for the new products to be priced to ensure access. Image Credits: United Nations. Continue reading ->
The proportion of the world’s population using safely managed sanitation services increased from 28-45% between 2000 and 2017, according to the latest joint report of the World Health Organization and UNICEF on Progress in Household Drinking Water, Sanitation and Hygiene. However, huge service gaps still remain, with 4.2 billion people worldwide still lacking access to […] Continue reading ->