Essential Medicines News

Bertrand Benoit and Quentin Peel, “Merkel seeks EU-US accord,” Financial Times, 3 January 2007.
“Full text: Interview with Angela Merkel,” MSNBC, 3 January 2007.
German chancellor Angela Merkel announced she will seek closer economic cooperation between the European Union and the United States. Germany began its six-month rotation of the EU presidency this week. Merkel is also […]

The December 2006 issue of the American Political Science Association’s journal Perspectives on Politics features a suite of articles on the theme “25 Years at the Margins — The Global Politics of HIV/AIDS.”
Andrea Densham, “Introduction: Politics as a Cause and Consequence of the AIDS Pandemic,” Perspectives on Politics, 4: 4, pp. 641-646, December 2006.
The response […]

IP-NGOs project, “NGOs, Intellectual Property Rights and Multilateral Institutions,” report, 22 December 2006.
The project was directed by Duncan Matthews of Queen Mary Intellectual Property Research Institute at Queen Mary, University of London. The report studied the activities of non-governmental organization on intellectual property issues at certain intergovernmental organizations. One of the case studies of the […]

On 16 January, the Project on Science & Intellectual Property in the Public Interest of the American Association for the Advancement of Science is hosting a symposium at the AAAS headquarters in Washington, DC. The subject is intellectual property protections and the conduct of research in the U.S. scientific community.
The symposium will address several findings […]

Mark Sappenfield, “India poised for pharmaceutical boom,” Christian Science Monitor, 2 January 2007.
Another look at the Indian pharmaceutical industry. The article points out that India has more plants approved to make drugs for the American market than any country except the U.S. itself. However, “India is still in many ways the premier drug-provider for the […]

Sarah Boseley, “Scientists on a mission to bring cheap drugs to the world’s poorest countries,” The Guardian, 2 January 2007.
Until recently, hepatitis C, a potentially fatal blood-borne infection that could affect as many as 500,000 people in the UK, was treated with the antiviral drug ribavirin, together with interferon.
The drugs are old enough to be […]

Peter Wonacott, “Indian Scientists Return Home as Economy Moves a Step Up,” Wall Street Journal, 14 December 2006.

India was long a virtual pariah state among Western pharmaceutical companies because it let domestic companies sell copies of foreign drugs so long as they tweaked the manufacturing process. But in early 2005 the Indian government promised to […]

From the “Yes, Virginia, generics do cost less” department:
A U.K. government report says that prescribing generics more often for the cholesterol drugs pravastatin and simvastatin, rather than the brand name products, could save the National Health Service £85 million (about $167 million) a year.
Sarah Hall, “Generic statins could save NHS £85m a year,” The Guardian, […]

On 29 November 2006, Thailand announced it would issue a compulsory license for the HIV/AIDS medicine, efavirenz. This would be the first time the Thai government has issued a compulsory license.
At this point, that news is not so recent. But there have been more recent developments — after the U.S. government decided to get involved.
“Democrats […]

Follow-up to “U.S. GAO releases report on new drug development,” 27 December 2006.
A few pieces from the mainstream press, summarizing the report and responses from politicians and industry groups:
Christopher Lee, “New Drugs Declining, Research Costs Increasing, GAO Says,” Washington Post, 20 December 2006, page A8.
Douglas Waller, “Too Little Bang for the Buck in Drug Research?,” […]