Health
AIDS: Fantasy figures and poor delivery
IPN Opinion article
When activists gather in Toronto for the 2006 AIDS summit to demand yet more money for the UN goal of treating 10 million sufferers, no-one will be admitting this figure is an educated guess, at best. This simple but avoided truth has massive implications for the way we fight the disease.
Bridge the digital divide
IPN Opinion article
Use of ICT along with an open economy will help developing economies to grow faster and catch up with developed ones.
Ethical' drugs miss heart of matter
IPN Opinion article
Scientists at Imperial College claim to be able to save millions of lives with their cheaper 'ethical pharmaceuticals'. But the fixation on the cost of medicines is diverting attention away from far more pressing issues.
High tariffs on drugs breed counterfeit medicines
IPN Opinion article
Franklin Cudjoe tells the Ghanaian minister of health how high tariffs and taxes on imported medicines in Ghana are driving people to traditional quack cures or to cheap counterfeit medicines.
G7 plus 1: the elephant in the dining room
IPN Opinion article
Ahead of the St Petersburg G8 meeting, taking place on 15-17 July, Alec van Gelder questions Russia's presence in a club of industrialised democracies.
Health warning: A long and prosperous life kills
IPN Opinion article
It would be a mistake to respond to the increasing burden of chronic diseases in poorer countries by banning "unhealthy" products. Instead, economic development should be encouraged so that populations can educate themselves and afford better health interventions.
Obsession with lower cost leads to deadly mistake
IPN Opinion article
Bibek Debroy challenges the Thai Government to get its act together if the country is to come to grips with its HIV/AIDS problem. A strategy based on cost-containment in the procurement of medicines can and already has led to more problems than it has solved.
Kenya's drug plan would be bitter pill
IPN Opinion article
Kenya is proposing to next week's World Health Assembly a scheme that would see much medical R&D shifted from the private to the public sector. Thompson Ayodele takes a critical look at the plan, and concludes that it would be bureaucratic, messy and counterproductive.
