MSF responds to latest WHO recommendation for a COVID-19 therapeutic, baricitinib
January 14, 2022Geneva: With the World Health Organization (WHO) recommending baricitinib for the treatment of people with severe or critical COVID-19, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) calls on governments to take immediate steps to ensure that patent monopolies do not stand in...
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Launch of public health partnership to tackle the silent epidemic of hepatitis C in low- and middle-income countries
July 28, 2021The Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi), Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), FIND, the global alliance for diagnostics, and the Treatment Action Group are joining forces to tackle a ‘silent’ public health injustice: the continuing disparities in access to diagnostics and...
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MSF to wealthy countries: Don’t block and ruin the potential of a landmark waiver on monopolies during the pandemic
February 3, 2021Geneva, Switzerland — Ahead of the next round of talks at the World Trade Organization (WTO) to discuss a proposal by South Africa and India to waive monopolies on COVID-19 medical tools during the pandemic, Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders...
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Access to medicines: Will history repeat itself?
January 19, 2021Rebutting pharma’s rejection of a global COVID-19 IP waiver By Felipe Carvalho, Yuanqiong Hu, Leena Menghaney In response to the COVID-19 “TRIPS waiver” proposal submitted by South Africa and India for a temporary waiver from certain pharmaceutical intellectual property (IP) obligations at...
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Lebanon: Overlapping crises in Lebanon increase needs and worsen access to care
January 10, 2021Since late 2019, Lebanon has been grappling with its worst economic crisis in decades, social unrest and political turmoil. On top of that, and following the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic at the start of 2020, a major explosion tore through the capital, Beirut, in...
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MSF: Governments must demand pharma make all COVID-19 vaccine licensing deals public
November 11, 2020Terms of a deal disclosed show that we cannot rely on pharma’s goodwill to do the right thing, even in a pandemic. Geneva, 11 November 2020 – After the worrying terms of a deal struck between pharmaceutical corporation AstraZeneca and...
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Access to Medicines: In landmark move, India and South Africa propose no patents on COVID-19 medicines, tools during pandemic
October 7, 2020Governments make request to WTO for intellectual property waiver for all countries until herd immunity reached Geneva - In a landmark move, India and South Africa on 2 October asked the World Trade Organization (WTO) to allow all countries to...
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Tuberculosis: Policies should ‘help facilitate access to life saving treatment not create barriers.’
August 20, 2020Stobdan Kalon is a medical doctor working with Medecins Sans Frontieres/Doctors Without Borders (MSF). His experience spans from managing infectious diseases, interventions in Drug Resistant-Tuberculosis (DR-TB), hepatitis and HIV. As a doctor, I am elated that the World Health Organization...
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Tuberculosis: MSF welcomes WHO revision in TB guidelines and urges greater access and affordability in India to new regimen
August 4, 2020New Delhi, India: Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has welcomed the revision made by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to its tuberculosis (TB) guidelines, allowing for safe use of a treatment regimen including both bedaquiline and delamanid for drug-resistant...
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Access to medicines: Governments must scale up better TB treatment as J&J drops crucial drug price
July 6, 2020NEW YORK/GENEVA - The pharmaceutical corporation Johnson & Johnson (J&J) has announced a reduced price of US$1.50 [1] per day for the tuberculosis (TB) drug bedaquiline, which is an important step that should allow more people with drug-resistant forms of TB...
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US trade report could be used to block countries from making affordable COVID-19 medicines
April 30, 2020NEW YORK/NEW DELHI —Amidst the ongoing global crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States Trade Representative (USTR) released its annual “Special 301 Report” today that calls out countries for implementing and supporting public health safeguards in their intellectual property laws...
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COVID-19: MSF calls for no patents or profiteering on COVID-19 drugs, tests, and vaccines
March 28, 2020GENEVA/NEW YORK — Doctors Without Borders / Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has called for no patents or profiteering on drugs, tests, or vaccines used for the COVID-19 pandemic, and for governments to prepare to suspend and override patents and take other measures,...
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