Blogs
New WHO Director-General Embraces Universal Coverage, Cancer Focus Urged
Fran Quigley, in Geneva
In his first press conference as director-general-elect of the World Health Organization, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus today made his core mission clear. “As I traveled in recent months, the message I heard around the world…
Dr Tedros Promises WHO Reform with Human Rights at the Core
Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has been elected Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) for the next five years. Dr Tedros, Ethiopia’s foreign minister and former health minister, believes WHO must evolve and adapt to urgent global health…
Listen to Civil Society: Medicines for People, Not Profit—Dr Chan
Fran Quigley, from the WHA in Geneva
In her final address to the World Health Assembly as WHO Director-General, Dr. Margaret Chan identified access to medicines as the most contentious issue of her decade-long tenure. That struggle was engaged, she…
Remove the For-Profit Variable from Clinical Drug Trials
Fran Quigley
At first glance, it seems that clinical trials are the much-criticized pharmaceutical industry’s best contribution to the medicines process. The industry leans on governments to fund early-stage research, then claims the patent rights to…
Hospital Bombings Destroy Syria’s Health System
Gina Li
The humanitarian crisis in Syria is now in its sixth year. The rest of the world is barraged with alarming images and harrowing accounts of entire families, their homes, and their livelihoods persistently coming under attack. Amidst the…
International Drug Control Limits Access to Medicines: A Human Rights Breach?
Marie Elske Gispen
The interface between the human rights and drug control frameworks is subject to much international debate and controversy. This is particularly the case in the context of access to controlled medicines: serious negative health,…
World Health Day: Power Imbalances and Inequalities Big Part of Poor Mental Health
Dainius Puras
Every year, World Health Day falls on 7 April, the anniversary of the founding of the World Health Organization (WHO). Each year, WHO observes this occasion by promoting an important global health issue.
This year, the theme is…
New WHO Leader Will Need Human Rights to Counter Nationalistic Populism
Eric Friedman and Lawrence O. Gostin
The need for WHO leadership on human rights—and for global leadership on health and human rights beyond WHO—has always been present, yet has become ever more pressing. A reactionary, nationalist populism has been…
How We Fix This: The Case for a Publicly Financed Medicines Research System
Fran Quigley
“OK, but tell us what we would replace it with.”
The response in the online comments section following one of my articles on access to medicines may have been a bit curt, but the point was well-taken. Virtually no one who is…
Drug Prices and FDA Reform on Trump’s Radar
Fran Quigley
President Donald Trump’s meeting with pharmaceutical industry executives on 31 January signalled his intention to force down drug prices, but as a sweetener to the industry he is also looking at easing drug regulatory processes.
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