Andrew Ullmann and Michael Moore  For six decades, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in infants was a public health problem without a solution.  According to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), an estimated 250,000 children under five are hospitalised each year across Europe due to RSV infection, overwhelming paediatric wards each winter, and […] Continue reading ->
The European Commission announced that it will contribute €700 million to the next funding cycle of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria at the G7 One Health Summit in Lyon on Tuesday. This was one of several pledges made at the summit, as the World Bank, vaccine alliance Gavi, governments, philanthropies and […] Continue reading ->
Argentina took a step backwards last month when it revoked key guidelines that defined what could – and could not – be patented in its pharmaceutical sector.  For more than a decade, Argentina’s patentability guidelines have helped prevent pharmaceutical monopolies, enabling timely competition to enter the market, lowering prices of medical tools, and improving people’s […] Continue reading ->
With no agreement in sight, World Health Organization (WHO) member states curtailed talks on the Pandemic Agreement annex five hours earlier than scheduled on Saturday night, resolving to meet again within a month for a further five days of negotiations. Member states will reconvene between 27 April and 1 May to negotiate further on the […] Continue reading ->
Final talks on the Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing (PABS) system, the last outstanding piece of the Pandemic Agreement, are being held in Geneva this week. The Pandemic Agreement, being negotiated in Geneva, emerged to address the unacceptable inequities that defined the COVID-19 global health disaster. During this pandemic, delayed and inequitable access to vaccines may […] Continue reading ->
Countries with a high incidence of typhoid or antimicrobial resistance to its leading pathogen, Salmonella Typhi, should introduce typhoid vaccinations, according to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) on Immunization. In new guidance issued Wednesday, SAGE also recommended routine COVID-19 vaccination for groups at highest risk of severe COVID-19 disease […] Continue reading ->