Healthcare & Pharmaceuticals

JOHANNESBURG -- A severe shortage of two antiretrovirals (ARVs) produced by leading pharmaceutical Bristol-Myers Squibb in Kenya, could have critical repercussions for patients, says Medecines sans Frontieres (MSF). Read More

From golden rice to anti-viral tomatoes, is the biotech industry's third generation good medicine or good marketing? And, activists ask, what are the environmental consequences? Read More

As East African countries are about to change national malaria treatment protocols, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) today releases a report in the hope of averting a fatal choice. Read More

In the final hectic days before Congress adjourns for the year, lobbyists are swarming around the Capitol, trying to adorn a bill on bioterrorism with all sorts of special-interest provisions. Read More

US officials have refused to bust Bayer's monopoly on anthrax drugs, even though generic drugs would save $millions. Bayer's patent was protected under the WTO. Now those rights are challenged. Read More

NEW DELHI -- The Kerala government has decided to introduce legislation to protect the intellectual property rights of its tribespeople who have been practising traditional nature-based medicine for centuries. Read More

African leaders used the opening of the UN General Assembly Special Session on HIV-AIDS Monday to assail the international community's response to the deadly epidemic for failing to match the speed and seriousness with which the disease is infecting their citizens. Official after official rose to drive home the message that the death of more than 20 million people, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa, demands that more money be committed to the fight. Read More

In a move activists hoped would lead to a flood of affordable AIDS medication to Africa, the pharmaceutical industry dropped its suit Thursday challenging a South African law many say would allow the government to import or produce generic versions of the drugs. Read More

39 NGOs Denounce 39 Pharmaceutical Transnationals' Legal Action Against the South African Government and the Complaint Against Brazil Lodged by the USA with WTO. Read More

As you already know, the governments of the western hemisphere and their corporate bosses are signing our names to the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas as we speak. This secret treaty's being made to destroy activist victories, privatize public services, and gut public safeguards; to roll back everything that 500 years of resistance has won. Read More