Access to point-of-care tests for people with advanced HIV under threat as diagnostics corporations to stop production

MSF calls on US based corporations Abbott and BD to ensure adequate supply of CD4 tests and equipment. Geneva, 11 May 2023 – In a new report released today, Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) warned that access to point-of-care CD4 testing for HIV is under threat because US diagnostics corporations Abbott Laboratories (Abbott) and … Read more

MSF demands J&J give up its patent monopoly on TB drug to put lives over profits

Access to TB drug bedaquiline, a backbone medicine for drug-resistant TB treatment regimens, remains out of reach for too many Geneva, 26 April 2023 – Ahead of Johnson & Johnson’s (J&J) annual shareholders meeting, the international medical humanitarian organisation Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) demanded that the US corporation publicly commit now to not … Read more

MSF fights chronic kidney disease in southern Guatemala

Three years ago, Salomón discovered he was seriously ill with kidney disease. This happened after he was bitten by a snake in a sugarcane field during the zafra – as the sugarcane harvest period is commonly known – in the municipality of La Gomera, Escuintla, where agricultural production occupies most of the territory. At 54 … Read more

MSF to governments negotiating at WTO: get it right and adopt the real TRIPS Waiver

To effectively increase people’s access to all COVID medical tools, governments must return to TRIPS Waiver proposed over 20 months ago At the World Trade Organization (WTO) General Council Meeting (7 June) and the 12th WTO Ministerial Conference (12 – 15 June), governments are expected to continue negotiations on a problematic draft text presented in … Read more

MSF responds to new WHO guidance recommending vastly shorter, improved and better-tolerated treatment for multi drug-resistant TB

Geneva, 3rd May, 2022 – Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) are pleased that, having shared the results of TB PRACTECAL, our clinical trial that found a new, safer and more effective six-month oral treatment regimen for multi drug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB), the World Health Organization (WHO) have announced it will update global guidance on treatment. Following the results of … Read more

COVID-19: MSF urges governments to reject the draft COVID-19 text at WTO that would set a negative precedent

Draft text is NOT the intellectual property Waiver for COVID-19 medical tools people need Geneva – Almost one and a half years since India and South Africa first proposed a landmark intellectual property (IP) Waiver for COVID-19 medical tools at the World Trade Organization (WTO), a draft text that had been under discussion by several governments was leaked … Read more

MSF responds to latest WHO recommendation for a COVID-19 therapeutic, baricitinib

Geneva: 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 the way of access to this treatment. In hospitalised patients, the oral drug baricitinib can … Read more

Launch of public health partnership to tackle the silent epidemic of hepatitis C in low- and middle-income countries

The 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 treatment for the hepatitis C virus (HCV) in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), home to … Read more

MSF to wealthy countries: Don’t block and ruin the potential of a landmark waiver on monopolies during the pandemic

Geneva, 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 (MSF) called on the wealthy countries opposing the proposal not to block it and ruin … Read more

Access to medicines: Will history repeat itself?

Rebutting 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 the World Trade Organization (WTO), Thomas Cueni, the director-general of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical … Read more