affordable medicines

Pharmaceutical giant Novartis is back in court this week, in a renewed attempt to block India’s right to produce affordable ‘generic’ versions of the company’s branded medicines.

International agency Oxfam has welcomed the announcement by international drug purchasing agency UNITAID to create a patent pool for HIV drugs. Millions of poor people will now have access to cheaper, more appropriate medicines.

Access to medicines is a major challenge for people in developing countries. With the right medicines, diseases such as HIV and AIDS, tuberculosis (TB), and malaria are treatable.

Companies producing affordable generic medicines for poor people could be subject to criminal prosecutions and have their medicines seized on orders from big drug companies under plans being drawn up by a closed group of mainly rich countries