Labor
"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.
Rising food prices, protectionism and the poor
IPN Opinion article
Food prices have drastically risen over the past year, causing street protests from Mexico to India to Senegal; it is the poorest countries that will benefit most from dropping their own tariffs in response to this.
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
Counterfeit drugs
IPN Opinion article
It's not just the criminals who are threatening health with counterfeit or substandard drugs, but also the questionable procurement practices of international aid agencies.
Medicines for the poor: not the Oxfam way
IPN Opinion article
The registration of new medicines fell sharply in the last year in the USA, while Oxfam calls for a compulsory pricing structure and backs the compulsory licenses sought by Thailand and threatened by Brazil and Indonesia. There are indeed other problems facing pharmaceutical companies but the campaign against patents is a major one: when Big Pharma gives up investing in innovation, where will new medicines come from? The price of punishing Big Pharma is to punish the poor harder.
