Kawaldip Sehmi, CEO of the International Alliance of Patients’ Organizations (IAPO), answers 5 questions on why the Essential Medicines List is important for patients. IAPO is a United Kingdom-based alliance of 276 member organisations from 71 countries representing 50 disease areas, and working in collaboration with civil society, UN agencies and the healthcare industry. Sehmi holds a […] Continue reading ->
WHO has added ten new cancer drugs, including some pricey ones, to its 2019 Essential Medicines List, which provides global guidance to countries and health systems about drugs deemed most essential to patients and public health systems. The addition of major new cancer treatments in five categories, melanoma (skin), lung, blood and prostate cancers, reflects […] Continue reading ->
Githinji Gitahi, Co-Chair of the UHC2030 Steering Committee & Group Chief Executive Officer of AMREF Health Africa – the largest Africa-based healthcare non-profit – and Fumie Griego, Deputy Director General and Chief Operating Officer of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA), share highlights from a panel discussion held in Geneva on the […] Continue reading ->
In a little-publicised move, the WHA last week agreed to close a critical loophole in the WHO Pandemic Influenza Preparedness (PIP) Framework that could have allowed commercial vaccine manufacturers to indirectly make use of biological information about flu strains from another country – without providing that country with any benefits from the vaccines or antivirals […] Continue reading ->
After a grueling 34 hours of nearly non-stop negotiations, World Health Assembly delegates appeared to be close to a final agreement Saturday evening on a resolution supporting more systematic disclosure of prices for medicines purchased and sold on national and global markets; a “drafting group” is expected to reconvene Monday morning to put the finishing […] Continue reading ->
[Re-posted from Knowledge Ecology International.] By James Love, Director of Knowledge Ecology International (KEI) – 22 May 2019 Perhaps the toughest issue in the 72nd World Health Assembly negotiations on a WHO transparency resolution concerns the proposal to require public reporting of the costs of each clinical trial undertaken for development of drugs, vaccines, cell- […] Continue reading ->
Thomas Cueni, director general of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations, shared his view on fair pricing with Health Policy Watch: “Most of us can probably agree that innovation is meaningless if it does not reach patients. At the same time, a Fair Price must strike a balance between a price that is […] Continue reading ->