PATENT INJUSTICE
Plea to Modi on affordable drugs
Ahead of US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s meeting at the White House, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has cautioned that US pressure on India to change its drug regulatory and patent system could result in millions of people in the US and around the world losing their lifeline of affordable medicines.
As an international medical humanitarian organisation that relies on affordable generic medicines produced in India to run its medical programs in more than 60 countries, MSF urged Modi to protect India’s role as the “pharmacy of the developing world.”
Regulatory action
Collaboration on antibiotics
The European Medicines Agency, the Japanese Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency and the United States’ Food and Drug Administration have agreed to align their data requirements for certain aspects of the clinical development of new antibiotics in order to stimulate the development of new treatments to fight antimicrobial resistance and protect global public health.
cancer cure
Opening up market access in Africa
The American Cancer Society and the Clinton Health Access Initiative have announced two separate market access agreements with Pfizer Inc and Cipla Inc to expand access to 16 essential cancer treatment medications, including chemotherapies, in Ethiopia, Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania, as part of an effort to improve the environment for cancer care in Africa. About 44 per cent of cancer cases in sub-Saharan Africa occur in these countries.