1-28 | Licenses just agreed between three generic manufacturers and pharmaceutical company Tibotec, owned by Johnson & Johnson, will keep a promising new AIDS medicine out of the hands of many patients across the developing world, the international medical humanitarian organisation Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said today. The licenses exclude many developing countries where Johnson & Johnson/ Tibotec will likely charge high prices. Other precise restrictions introduced by the agreement must be scrutinised carefully.
1-4 | In 2010, international donors shifted their focus away from AIDS, threatening the advances that have been made in treating the disease over the last decade. New scientific evidence and treatment recommendations reinforce the need to provide people with better treatment and earlier during the disease, both to prevent them from becoming severely ill, and to help reduce transmission of the virus among the population.
1-4 | 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.
1-4 | A new test for tuberculosis that became available in 2010 will make diagnosing a curable disease that kills nearly two million people every year much faster, easier and more precise.
1-4 | A new, highly-effective vaccine launched in 2010 now offers the hope of an escape from one of the most fatal forms of meningitis in Africa – and it was developed not by one of the big pharmaceutical companies, but thanks to a partnership between the non-profit organisation PATH and the Serum Institute of India which ensured it would both meet the needs of people in Africa and be affordable.