Fake medicines, which make false claims about what they contain or where they are from, represent a genuine problem. But in 2010, a number of initiatives that claim to deal with this problem have gone off course, by taking a trade approach to what is first and foremost a public health problem. So...
In a move that could boost access to affordable medicines in the developing world, the Medicines Patent Pool was formally created in July 2010, and promptly received official backing from the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) two months later. MSF has been actively campaigning for the creation...
Through its Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has been closely following the developments in the world of access to medicines, vaccines and diagnostics. Among the positive stories of the past year: new tools were developed for Meninigitis A and for...
HIV/AIDS treatment in developing countries is being dealt a double blow that will mean treatment recommendations cannot be implemented and the promise of new science remain unfulfilled, said the international medical humanitarian organisation Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). “The price of the newer...
Janice LEE is a pharmacist who worked with medical teams in MSF projects in Liberia and Zimbabwe before starting work with MSF’s Access Campaign. Her job is, among many other things, to identify potential new sources of drugs that could be of use to MSF’s work treating patients in developing...
Europe Seeking to Undermine India’s Pro-public Health Law As negotiations on an EU-India free trade agreement (FTA) resume in Brussels today, international medical humanitarian organisation Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is calling on Europe’s highest trade official to halt actions that will...
As the European Commission (EC) resumes negotiations on 6 October on a trade agreement with India that could block access to life-saving generic medicines, the international medical humanitarian organisation Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is launching a global campaign to stop Europe’s multiple...
As the European Commission (EC) and India meet for closed-door negotiations on a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) this week, international medical humanitarian organisation Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) warns this is the last chance to remove provisions that will block access to life-saving medicines...
In a decisive step to improve access to medicines in the developing world, the Executive Board of UNITAID, the international health financing agency, has given the green light for a patent pool for AIDS medicines to open for business. "Although these are early days, the patent pool could become a...
A retreat from international funding commitments for AIDS threatens to undermine the dramatic gains made in reducing AIDS-related illness and death in recent years, according to a new report by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). The MSF report highlights how expanding access to HIV treatment has not...
