Roger Bate
Combating fake medicines: health, IP and global politics
Issues such as intellectual property rights have prevented action in tackling the global menace of counterfeit and substandard medicines
UN Disarms Weapon of Malarial Destruction
IPN Opinion article
DDT is much-demonised by superstitious Westerners but it has saved millions of lives all over the world (including the USA and Europe) and continues to save lives in Africa. But not for much longer: the WHO's reluctant acceptance of DDT in 2006 has been reversed in favour of a range of human experiments using poor people as guinea-pigs.
What's wrong in the Mekong?
IPN Opinion article
Resistance to the latest anti-malarial drugs is building up in the Mekong Delta and will threaten much of Asia and Africa: the WHO has just put out a warning that catches up with years of research saying the same thing. Mutation plays a part but so do counterfeits, accounting for a quarter of all medicines in developing countries and a third in Africa.
Is War Against Bad Medicine Paying Off?
IPN Opinion article
Nigeria tends to make headlines for corruption but it has made impressive progress in fighting counterfeit medicines, through the determined actions of its National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), started under the brave leadership of the legendary Dora Akunyili. These analysts describe their new research that updates their frightening discoveries of fakes in 2007.
Subsidies for the rich in poor countries
IPN Opinion article
Champions of local production see it as a way of decreasing transport costs, providing local jobs, increasing expertise, cutting dependence on foreign suppliers--thus lowering prices and magically improving access to drugs. But subsidies, protectionism and political criteria open the door to all sorts of bad policies and all sorts of bad medicines.
Poor medicine for poor people
IPN Opinion article
New field research by Africa Fighting Malaria shows that a third of anti-malaria drugs collected in six African cities fail at least one quality test - yet aid agencies continue to fund untested, substandard drugs.
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.
Malaria: Great Idea, Bad Scheme
IPN Opinion article
The great idea is to supply cheap anti-malarials through the private sector in Africa: the trouble is that the scheme is not proven and the Global Fund money could be better deployed in existing and effective anti-malaria campaigns.
