Health
Funding for sub-standard drugs
IPN Opinion article
Sub-standard AIDS and malaria drugs can cause parasite resistance and clinical failure. Yet the Global Fund has been procuring such drugs for millions of low-income patients.
New definition of fake drugs
IPN Opinion article
There has been much coverage in India of the campaign to resist a WHO crackdown on counterfeits, which activists and the government claim will damage the Indian generics industry. This does not make any sense but, as the coverage shows, it makes a lot of noise: Julian Harris says the new definition of counterfeits will, on the contrary, help Indian generics companies and Brand India.
"Romantic" AIDS cause diverts needed funds
IPN Opinion article
AIDS advocacy has taken money from diseases that kill more people and are easily cured: we need to redress the balance for the benefit of all poor countries and poor patients. Although average global prevalence is much lower, this imbalance applies even in South Africa and other African countries hard-hit by AIDS.
Threat to Modern Medicines
IPN Opinion article
The WHO's plans to push subsidised local drug production in Africa threaten to worsen the problem of substandard generics, placing the most vulnerable at risk.
Good move on bad drugs
IPN Opinion article
The US FDA's ban on 30 drugs from India's Ranbaxy has now extended to PEPFAR's purchases of Ranbaxy ARVs for AIDS programmes but many other aid donors are still buying sub-standard drugs for poor countries from many manufacturers, in line with the WHO's shoddy 'pre-qualification' list. The poor deserve the same standards of medicines as rich people ñ not just because of human decency but also because bad medicines encourage resistance to HIV and malaria, endangering many more people. Donors must demand quality-control from the WHO.
Trusting the African private sector with aid
IPN Opinion article
Because it is channeled through corrupt and dysfunctional ministries of health, most foreign aid for health never makes it to patients. Donors should abandon this model and instead take advantage of Africa's massive private sector.
NZ launch for Fighting the Diseases of Poverty
Book launch in New Zealand for Fighting the Diseases of Poverty
