Switzerland, considered to be one of the richest countries in the world and home to significant medical research and development, has begun feeling the pressure of high drug prices for its citizens. This has led it to begin talking with other countries exploring joint procurement initiatives aimed at lowering prices, the Swiss global health ambassador told Health Policy Watch in a recent interview. Continue reading ->
Universal health coverage, access to medicines, and noncommunicable diseases are priorities for Switzerland in global health policy. Amb. Nora Kronig Romero is the head of the International Affairs Division and Vice Director General of the Federal Office of Public Health, as well as Swiss Ambassador for Global Health. She sat down with Health Policy Watch while in Geneva last week for the meeting of the World Health Organization Executive Board, which Switzerland attended as an observer to the governing board comprised of 34 WHO member states. Continue reading ->
In a rare occasion, the World Health Organization Executive Board today resorted to recorded voting to decide on a politically-charged question, as Israel requested the deletion of an agenda item for the next World Health Assembly relating to the health of Palestinians in occupied territories. The Board ultimately voted against removing the agenda item for the next WHA in May. Continue reading ->
A massive restructuring of WHO’s 2020-2021 budget should see a shift away from siloed disease control programmes to a more integrated approach, focused on building health systems and strengthening country operations. These were the key strategic features of the proposed budget of US$ 4.785 billion, reviewed by WHO’s Executive Board in a lengthy session today. Continue reading ->
Today marks the launch of a brand-new online platform for Health Policy Watch, www.healthpolicy-watch.org, which has been redesigned to bring the richest possible selection of stories and ideas about current issues under debate in global health policy circles – which directly or indirectly touch the well-being of nearly everyone on the planet. Continue reading ->
Tafenoquine, the first new drug to be developed in over 60 years to treat relapsing malaria, has in fact been around since the late 1970s, when researchers with the US Walter Reed Army Institute of Research first took note of its antimalarial properties. But the drug’s potential to cure relapsing malaria caused by the Plasmodium vivax parasite, the less deadly but most widespread malaria species, has only been recently been recognised. Continue reading ->