The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), an innovative collaboration of governments, UN agencies, foundations and the private sector, has reaffirmed its commitment to safeguard and promote equitable access to new vaccines under development to head off the risk of disease outbreaks, epidemics and pandemics that threaten global health. Image Credits: CEPI / CureVac. Continue reading ->
The African content is one step closer to its first medicine and health super-regulator. The treaty to establish an African Medicine Agency (AMA), meant to govern medical product regulation for the entire continent, was endorsed by the African Union Heads of State and Government on 11 February, according to a press release following the 32nd AU Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Continue reading ->
Registration has begun for a closed-door gathering allowing governments and stakeholders to hold open discussions about a fairer pricing system for medical products, led by the World Health Organization. The second meeting of the Fair Pricing Forum, this time in South Africa, comes as debates over drug pricing and access rise ever higher in developing and developed countries alike. Continue reading ->
A network of life sciences organisations working together to address antibacterial resistance worldwide has expanded to now include 10 top organisations from six countries, according to CARB-X (Combating Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria), a US-based partnership investing hundreds of millions of dollars in R&D for antibacterial resistance over 5 years. Continue reading ->
Geneva-based Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, today announced the start of a major two-week campaign to vaccinate hundreds of thousands of people in Harare, Zimbabwe against typhoid, after an outbreak there. The campaign will be the first in Africa to use a new typhoid vaccine that can be administered to young children and is long-lasting. Nearly 2,000 cases of typhoid have been reported since a second wave of outbreak arose in September, Gavi said. Continue reading ->
Wellcome Trust, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the African Academy of Sciences have joined together in a new initiative to make clinical practice guidelines more efficient and adaptable for clinical trials that require less stringent approaches, such as those that take place during infectious disease outbreaks. Additionally, by applying a more flexible approach towards the application of these guidelines, the initiative also hopes to make them “future proof,” or able to better incorporate new technologies. Continue reading ->
An innovative five-year agreement between the Australian government and pharmaceutical companies, involving a lump sum payment of about US$ 766 million for an unlimited five-year supply of the most advanced Hepatitis C (HCV) drugs, has reduced the per-patient costs of these cutting-edge treatments by roughly 85%, according to a study today in the New England Journal of Medicine. Continue reading ->