Secure and reliable supply chains for life-saving medicines are essential features of the global health landscape. They ensure that quality approved drugs are manufactured and available in the quantities needed, without interruption. For the fight against malaria, securing supply chains for quality, life-saving antimalarials involves the collective effort of a range of organisations working to mitigate the risk of any shortage of these drugs. A recent success in this area has been the quality approval of a second supplier of injectable artesunate, the drug recommended by the World Health Organization to treat severe malaria. Continue reading ->
Since 2003, Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi) has worked to meet the public health needs of neglected populations by filling gaps in drug development left by the for-profit pharmaceutical industry. A new research study by the French Development Agency analysed DNDi’s unique product development partnership (PDP) model, and found that it “illustrate[s] what can be presented as a ‘commons’ within the area of public health.” Continue reading ->
NEW DELHI, India -- Since its creation in 2002, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has been an extraordinarily successful financing instrument in global health. It says it has saved 27 million lives as of the end of 2017 and reduced the number of deaths caused by AIDS, TB and malaria each year by one-third since 2002 in the countries where it invests. Now the Global Fund director has some ideas to increase funding to carry on the fight. Continue reading ->
The World Health Organization Executive Board last week heard about what the lack of access to medicines and other health services has meant in real life. These ranged from the heart-wrenching story of a baby girl needing and getting pain-killing medication to ease her life and passing to bring attention to the need for palliative care, to millions of children not getting the treatment they need to treat tuberculosis or heart diseases. Continue reading ->
Surely, the topic of human mobility has been the stumbling block in the common agenda of European countries for the last few years. In fact, the very existence of the European Union as we have known it so far is at stake, on this political issue. A certain degree of prudence would seem understandable, then, a few months ahead of the May EU elections. Surely, the intergovernmental nature of the UN agencies force them to interact with Member States, that is why exacerbating the political arena is a risky operation that may not pay off at all, in the long run. Moreover, for WHO Europe, the report on the health of refugees and migrant people in the 53 countries of the region is the first one of its kind, which may explain the hesitance of the beginner. But it is difficult to deny a bitter aftertaste, especially after the press conference. Continue reading ->