Long-anticipated European Commission proposals to reform the European Union’s pharmaceutical legislation – the biggest shake-up in 20 years – were finally made public on Wednesday. The reforms are aimed particularly at addressing access and price disparities between European states, ensuring that all EU citizens have access to the same products at the same price, EU […] Continue reading ->
Protestors gathered outside Ugandan embassies worldwide on Tuesday for a global day of action against that country’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill, which criminalises all LGBTQ people and proposes a series of punishments ranging from fines to the death penalty.   Violence against people suspected of being LGBTQ has already surged in the past month since Uganda’s Parliament […] Continue reading ->
IBADAN, Nigeria – There are high hopes that the R21/Matrix-M malaria vaccine recently approved by Ghana and Nigeria will be manufactured in Africa in the not-to-distant future – a brighter-than-usual prospect for this World Malaria Day (25 April). Earlier this month, Ghana’s Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) approved the R21/Matrix-M malaria vaccine manufactured by the […] Continue reading ->
The world’s largest global health organizations have announced a partnership to reverse the years-long backslide in global childhood vaccination rates caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.  An estimated 67 million children missed at least one essential vaccination between 2019 and 2021 and 50 million of these didn’t receive any vaccines – setting back childhood vaccination rates […] Continue reading ->
The World Health Organization (WHO) has dismissed a senior manager at its Geneva Headquarters, Temo Waqanivalu, on charges of sexual misconduct following a six-month investigation into allegations that he harassed a young British doctor at the World Health Summit in Berlin last October.  This is the first high-profile dismissal of an official at WHO’s headquarters […] Continue reading ->
CAPE TOWN – South Africa’s Health Minister was somewhat embarrassed that his government’s decision to procure pneumococcal vaccines from an Indian company rather than local company Biovac became public during a high-level international meeting on the local production of mRNA vaccines in his country. South Africa’s procurement decision coincided with a meeting in Cape Town […] Continue reading ->
Access to universal healthcare remains a global challenge and even more pressing in the African region. While African-based researchers, scientists and innovators have the capability to make significant contributions towards building homegrown solutions, the continent lacks adequate financial investment in innovative pharmaceutical research and development (R&D). To achieve the African Union’s Agenda 2063 for a […] Continue reading ->
Fifty years into the world “war on drugs”, the drugs are winning. Global levels of drug use and production, as well as drug-related deaths and incarcerations, are at all-time highs. Leading proponents of drug-policy reform who have gathered at the International Harm Reduction Conference in Melbourne this week say the evidence is in that it […] Continue reading ->