Health
AIDS: more money, less impact
IPN Opinion article
In the belief that the price and supply of drugs is the greatest barrier to care for HIV/AIDS patients, certain countries have set up a new financing mechanism named UNITAID. But this is duplicative and does not address the real problems of delivering high-quality treatment.
Misdiagnosing the diseases of the poor
IPN Opinion article
India's compliance with TRIPS will not hinder the poor's access to essential medicines; rather, it is the government's hold on the healthcare sector that makes equitable healthcare impossible.
Protecting patents safeguards patients
IPN Opinion article
John Kilama argues that "Attempting to replace IP protection with government funding of applied R&D is likely to be about as successful as the Soviet Union's record of innovation; i.e. poor."
WHO On Wrong Track With African Aids-Drug Drive
IPN Opinion article
NO ONE can accuse the World Health Organisation (WHO) of lacking ambition in its attempts to get to grips with the AIDS crisis sweeping much of sub-Saharan Africa.
Its "three by five" initiative - a plan to put 3-million people on lifeextending antiretroviral treatment by the end of this year - is arguably the single biggest push that any multilateral body has yet undertaken to try to tackle the disease.
Unfortunately, according to figures released last week by the WHO, the project looks like its going to miss its target spectacularly.
Is the proposed cure for the world's health problems worse than the disease?
IPN Opinion article
Activists' claims that too many resources are being devoted to finding cures for the diseases of the rich at the expense of the poor are both wrong and dangerous. By using this as a spurious justicification to reform the way in which R&D is conducted will have the unintended consequence of stifling the innovation that will provide us with drugs to combat the diseases of the future.
