Fifa Rahman, Unitaid NGO Delegation board member and PhD Candidate at the University of Leeds, moderated a panel at the recent IAS Conference on HIV Science in Mexico entitled “How To Fix Our Medical R&D Model: A Spotlight On TB Treatment.” The panel featured speakers from Médecins Sans Frontières’ (MSF/Doctors Without Borders) Access Campaign, Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative, Treatment Action Campaign, Treatment Action Group, The International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union), and the Mexican National Institute of Health Sciences and Nutrition (National Institute Salvador Zubirán). Here, Rahman shares highlights from the panel on why the medical research and development (R&D) model needs to be ‘fixed’, as well as ways to go about fixing it, including greater transparency, new incentives for investment in R&D that are alternatives to intellectual property, and increased NGO and community participation throughout the research and development process.

More than 100 civil society organisations and health experts signed on to an open letter yesterday calling out Germany, Sweden, Denmark, the UK and Australia, along with Austria and the United States, as wanting to “derail” and “weaken” the transparency resolution on drug prices and R&D costs.

New York, 30/04/2019 – Strengthening references to sexual and reproductive health and rights, marginalised people, and public-private partnerships that ensure rights and inclusion, were among the core proposals pitched yesterday at a United Nations multi-stakeholder meeting on Universal Health Coverage (UHC), involving representatives of government, UN agencies, civil society and the private sector.

A newly agreed draft text of the United Nations political declaration on tuberculosis was released to governments today, affirming the use of flexibilities in international trade rules on intellectual property, but excluding actionable language on those rules.

With negotiations over the final language of a United Nations high level declaration on ending tuberculosis still ongoing, the stakes are high as different TB stakeholders await the outcome. The language in question could either raise or reduce barriers to affordable access to life-saving TB drugs, according to civil society groups.

24 July 2018: Members of the United Nations concluded negotiations on the draft of the Political Declaration on the Fight Against Tuberculosis on 20 July. After weeks of heated negotiations over the inclusion of references to TRIPS flexibilities in the operative paragraphs, with the Group of 77 pushing for inclusion and the United States against it, the final text of the political declaration reflects the deadlock of these positions. Due to the inability of member states to reach agreement, the final text does not include substantive reference to TRIPS flexibilities.