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In recent days, access to medicines activists in many parts of the world are grappling with developments that have struck at the heart of the movement.

Médecins Sans Frontières, arguably one of the most powerful, influential and well-funded activist organization in the space, has proposed a restructuring its well-regarded and highly admired Access Campaign that currently works all over the world in the most political and challenging settings and one that consistently led and expanded the access to medical products for a range of diseases. MSF has programmes in more than 75 countries across the world.

From ensuring treatments, to challenging patents, from fighting for lower prices of drugs, to working with governments silently to improve health outcomes, the Access Campaign has been at the frontier of not only taking on the might of the pharmaceutical industry, but also making states more accountable.

1. The Kyoto Biennial Conference of the International Law Association was convened remotely as in December 2020 the COVID-19 pandemic precluded in-person gatherings. The Lisbon Biennial in July 2022 was among the first in-person events attended by many of its participants as the shadow of the pandemic dissipated. As the ILA prepares for its Athens Biennial in June 2024 the international community has largely returned to “normalcy” from a public health standpoint. Yet unfinished business from the COVID-19 pandemic remains as we seek to lay the groundwork for preventing and mitigating future pandemics. In a paradoxical sense, the COVID-19 pandemic opened a window of opportunity for governments and civil society to put in place institutional mechanisms to accomplish these objectives. Yet that window may not remain open for long. Planning and spending time to address low probability, high risk events – paradigmatically pandemics -- does not occupy a high government priority because returns on investment are uncertain, and political leaders are not likely to be credited by their constituencies for spending to address uncertainties.

While the World Health Organization’s International Negotiating Body (INB) continues to negotiate a global Pandemic Agreement, the US has issued its own vision for global health security and expanded its bilateral partnerships with countries across the world.

Following the release of this revamped US global health security strategy, Health Policy Watch spoke with Stephanie Psaki, the inaugural US Coordinator for Global Health Security and Deputy Senior Director for Global health security and biodefense at the US National Security Council.

More from interview here

See also U.S. GOVERNMENT GLOBAL HEALTH SECURITY STRATEGY 2024

The most recent estimate of the global number of deaths from dog-mediated rabies is 59 000 per year.1 Rabies is associated with a 99.9% fatality rate and severe trauma in families in which a rabies death occurs, and remains a major public health concern in most of Africa and Asia and some parts of South America. In the Americas, dog-mediated rabies is still a public health issue in specific regions in some countries.2 Robust data on rabies are lacking for many countries. The information available to WHO is presented on Map 1.

Ending human deaths from dog-mediated rabies by 2030 (“Zero by 30”) is the goal of a global strategy agreed in 2015 by a cross-sectoral partnership composed of WHO, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the World Organisation of Animal Health (WOAH) and the Global Alliance for Rabies Control.3 In 2020, as partnerships are vital to making progress towards Zero by 30, United Against Rabies (UAR) was launched as a collaborative forum for public and private sector organizations, rabies experts, development partners and civil society to work to improve rabies control.4

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WHO member states spent hours last week debating, disagreeing and finally voting on a number of issues concerning Palestine, Ukraine and even language on gender, in the just concluded 77^th World Health Assembly in Geneva last week.  

This reveals that no forum can be insulated from geopolitical tensions, and even more so when there is no way to clearly delineate health matters in conflict zones from dynamic political realities. (In the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, more than 400 attacks on healthcare facilities have been witnessed with a majority of them involving the use of force.)

While some countries believe that several voting rounds sucked time and energy away from the technical matters in health – a natural mainstay of the World Health Assembly, others regret the politicization but say that this cannot be prevented.

"MSF welcomes these new amendments to the IHR as an important first step towards addressing inequity in access to medical care and health products during global health emergencies. As a medical humanitarian organisation responding to emergencies globally, we are encouraged to see explicit recognition of the need to ensure access to health products during health emergencies, including in humanitarian settings.

“As the INB negotiation is extended for another year, we urge WHO member states to remember the clear lessons learned from the past health emergencies, from Ebola virus disease to COVID, follow the example of the IHR amendments, and complete the package of measures needed for a just framework for pandemic prevention, preparedness and response. 

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With the first-ever malaria vaccines rolling out across Africa and a next-generation tuberculosis (TB) vaccine in testing, scientific advances are driving an unparalleled expansion of vaccine development. But vaccines in development don’t become immunizations that protect our health without concerted efforts by global initiatives like Gavi, the vaccine alliance, that help bring these life-saving products to the world’s poorest countries.

Next month, Gavi will kick-off a campaign to raise several billion dollars to deliver on its new strategy. The stakes are high: falling short of its target could delay delivery of vaccines to those most in need.

After years of back-and-forth talks on how to best protect the world from the next pandemic disaster - World Health Organization Member States remain at a stalemate - with lower-income countries still lacking access to lifesaving health commodities and the ability to secure vital technologies and know-how during global public health emergencies - issues world leaders must rectify immediately.

As the 77th World Health Assembly (WHA) convened this year in Geneva, there was much anticipation as to the fate of the WHO Pandemic Agreement. For the last two years, Member States have been engaged in negotiations to create an agreement to prevent a repeat of the COVID-19 global health catastrophe - a human tragedy that is less about a virus and more about nationalist protectionism, corporate profit interests, and unacceptable inequity.

Member States of WHO secured a desperate win in reaching consensus on the amendments to the International Health Regulations, following more than two years of systematic and intense negotiations, culminating in an astonishing agreement in the final hours of the 77^th World Health Assembly. The consensus assumes greater significance in an otherwise difficult meeting of WHO member states this year, that was fraught with several political resolutions laced with rounds of voting among 194 countries.