Marwaan Macan-Markar
BANGKOK, Nov 25 2007 (IPS) – Public health and HIV/AIDS activists from the developing world are seeking to break the monopoly over drugs held by pharmaceutical giants through a new global campaign designed to influence international debate over the issue.
Formulated at the end of a three-day meeting, last week, which brought some 200 participants from 20 countries to the Thai capital, the campaign seeks a new way out of the current patent system; one that will encourage innovation of new drugs and access for all, says Kannikar Kijtiwatchakul, an organiser of the International Conference on Compulsory Licensing: Innovation and Access for All. What we have now is innovation controlled by the pharmaceutical industry that lets them have a monopoly on drugs. <…
Matthew O. Berger
WASHINGTON, Nov 12 2010 (IPS) – It had seemed her kids had the flu or a cold. But when it got worse, she took little Abigail to hospital. It was already too late; Abigail died in her mother s arms.
Returning home, Shannon Duffy Peterson s son exhibited the same symptoms, and she rushed him to hospital. He was saved after two days of care, but within 72 hours Peterson had almost lost both her kids to pneumonia, which kills more children globally than any other disease . These easily preventable deaths happened in the U.S. state of Minnesota, the heartland of the richest country on earth, where vaccines against the primary causes of pneumonia are widely available.
Now, Peterson, an advocate with Parents of Children with Infectious Diseases, spreads the…
Miriam Gathigah
NAIROBI, Jul 25 2011 (IPS) – For the first time ever, the Kenyan finance minister has allocated almost four million dollars, about 3.6 percent of the primary education budget, to provide free sanitary pads to schoolgirls.
One of the many self-employed women who can access microfinance credit through the Women Enterprise Fund. Credit: Miriam Gathigah/IPS
This comes after persistent pressure…
Credit: Samuel Otieno/UNHCR
IBADAN, NIGERIA, Apr 21 2020 (IPS) – Since the outbreak of coronavirus pandemic late last year in Wuhan, China, the global community has witnessed unprecedented to curtail, contain and control the disease. Many have proven to be . But others required critical context consideration.
For instance, the risks threatening the livelihoods of millions of people who are dependent on the informal market for their survival. Another example is the fact that the security measures being imposed are extracting a from ordinary citizens.
The situation is a learning curve for all countries.
The at national level have inc…
Nicolas de Rivière is President of the Security Council for the month of June 2020 and Permanent Representative of France to the United Nations.
Nicolas de Rivière, Permanent Representative of France to the United Nations, addresses the Security Council meeting on the situation in the Great Lakes region. New York, 3 October 2019. Credit: UN Photo/Laura Jarriel
NEW YORK, Jul 31 2020 (IPS) – “Reconciling the requirements of the ideal with the possibilities of the real : this is how Georges Bidault, Minister for Foreign Affairs and head of the French delegation to the San Francisco Conference, pursued by the drafters of the Charter of the United Nations. On…