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The anti-test case that\'s hard to swallow

IPN Opinion article

December 5, 2003
Rather than help developing countries, these stories and their attack on pharmaceutical companies may worsen things. Media coverage has contributed to polarisation of the disagreements over drugs patents, slowing a new World Trade Organisation trade round and harming prospects for agricultural liberalisation that would help poor countries. The current media campaign may succeed in encouraging legislation from South Africa to Mexico that will lower drug profits. However, without large profits, there will be less research and fewer drugs in the pipeline.
Labour chooses to deny choice to the rest of us

IPN Opinion article

October 27, 2003
One of Stephen Pollard\'s winning articles for the 2003 Frederic Bastiat Prize for Journalism
Statement on TRIPs and Public Health

IPN 
Press release

September 11, 2003
Banned wagon

IPN Opinion article

August 3, 2003
Unfortunately, campaigns against the disease are further hampered by the West's banning, on environmental grounds, of DDT ó a pesticide which was highly effective in stopping the spread of the disease. According to the charity Africa Fighting Malaria, the number of malaria cases has doubled in Zambia in the past decade, and increased tenfold in South Africa in the past five years ó a statistic little known in the West, because malaria isn't as fashionable a cause as Aids.
Malaria: Saving lives and protecting the environment

IPN Opinion article

June 30, 2003
In April, Africa Malaria Day was celebrated with pomp and pageantry. Across African cities, towns and villages thousands of young ones and adults died of malaria. The 2000 Abuja Declaration seeks to reduce malaria cases by 50 per cent, yet malaria still claims millions of lives. Malaria is the biggest health problem in Africa. In several fora, there is a general consensus that malaria is indeed a problem that needs to be tackled headlong. But several contradictions and backsliding on the part of most African governments and pressures from western donor agencies continue to constitute the stumbling block.
AIDS drug incentive dilemma

IPN Opinion article

June 7, 2003
According to recent reports, notably in the British Medical Journal, viral resistance is making existing AIDS drugs less effective and others totally useless. Meanwhile, the development of new AIDS drugs is in shocking decline, down by 33 percent over the past five years. The Bush administration seems to be unaware, and big pharma is unwilling to admit, that this decreased development is a nasty consequence of drug activists succeeding in their campaign to demand lower prices for AIDS drugs.
Push to fund DDT in fight against malaria in Africa

IPN Opinion article

May 29, 2003
Now, even as wealthy nations approve aid for Africa to fight malaria, critics say that by not explicitly authorizing the use of DDT, Western environmental standards are being applied to the developing world, where long-term, often unproven, risks take precedence over immediate needs - at a cost of thousands of lives. \"It\'s ecoimperialism,\" says Richard Tren, head of Africa Fighting Malaria, an independent organization which advocates the use of DDT. \"DDT is not permitted in Sweden. Well, that\'s well and good. But you\'re not going to die of malaria in Sweden.\"
Africans must also commit to the war against AIDS

IPN Opinion article

May 18, 2003
Africans are ill, unable to receive medical treatment and short of food because most African governments have kept people poor, frustrated trade and interfered with markets. By increasing economic freedom and enabling the private sector to thrive, Africa will be able to create the wealth that can build health infrastructure. Bush\'s billions of dollars are crucially important, but Africans won\'t triumph over AIDS or poverty until their leaders make a true commitment their people.
An AIDS mirage

IPN Opinion article

April 30, 2003
A Mexican Mistake?

IPN Opinion article

April 22, 2003
A year and a half ago in Doha, Qatar, long before it became the center of the Iraqi war effort, the war on AIDS was supposed to be re-charged by the World Trade Organization. At the Doha WTO Ministerial meeting an agreement was reached permitting poor countries to disregard patent protections for drugs designed to treat diseases that posed a special burden, an \"emergency\", on those impoverished societies. What the ministers had in mind in allowing the compulsory licensing of drugs was improving access to treatments for malaria and AIDS in countries like Benin and Botswana that have been hit hardest by disease epidemics. But instead the Doha declaration, as it is now known, has been used by mid-income countries such as Egypt and Peru for improving access to lifestyle drugs like Viagra.