The World Health Organization this week is holding its first-ever global conference on air pollution and health (30 October-1 November) in order to shed light on the alarming death toll of 7 million premature deaths caused every year by toxic air pollution and to call for a drastic scale-up of effective interventions to combat the problem. Continue reading ->

Image Credits: WHO: Getty Images.

The diminishing arsenal of efficient antibiotics to fight bacteria is a threat denounced by many, but investment in research and development of new antibiotics is seen as lagging. As the danger of getting back to a pre-antibiotic age is increasing, alternative ways of financing new antibiotics are being discussed. At the World Investment Forum this week, a panel looked into innovative means of investment, and ways to attract private investors to this field. Continue reading ->

The United States Department of Health and Human Services has released a new plan intended to reduce drug prices for some patients on Medicare, based on an international pricing index model. In his announcement of the plan, President Trump said the US would save money “for our seniors by paying the prices other countries pay. Nothing special, just the prices that other countries pay.” Continue reading ->

More dedicated to scientific research and much more “colourful” than the World Health Summit were descriptions for the 14th Global Grand Challenges Meeting 2018 that ended last night in Berlin and brought together some top researchers, policymakers and civil society. Like the WHS, the Grand Challenges Meeting focused on antimicrobial resistances and pandemic pathogens. But it also talked a little more on the issue of how better to incentivize R&D to fulfil SDG3, the UN Sustainable Development Goal on health, according to participants. Continue reading ->

Image Credits: WHS 2018.

BERLIN — Answering the call by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Ghana’s President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and Norway’s Prime Minister Erna Solberg for a global action plan for pushing global health, heads of 11 major health organisations today signed “a commitment to find new ways of working together to accelerate progress towards achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals” at the close of the World Health Summit in Berlin. Continue reading ->

Image Credits: Monika Ermert.

The United Nations late last month sought to hold landmark high-level meetings on ending tuberculosis and fighting noncommunicable diseases like cancer and cardiovascular disease, with mixed results. Now a Swiss-based expert is looking at the outcomes and what comes next, and in a webinar talked about the political trade-offs resulting from the meetings, the need to push for an integrated agenda on Universal Health Coverage, and how the private sector should be engaged. Continue reading ->

Image Credits: The Graduate Institute, Geneva.