Skip to main content
Treating multi drug resistant TB and HIV/AIDS in Manipur, India

Access to medicines

Unaffordable, unavailable, not adapted - people around the world face these challenges in accessing lifesaving medicines.

During the 1990s, MSF teams made a bitter observation: we were failing to treat some of our patients suffering from infectious diseases, while in developed countries, remarkable progress was being made in the field of health. Two decades on, medicines in developing countries are still either too expensive, aren't suitable to be used in many of the contexts in which we work (for example, in hot, humid conditions or where there's a lack of electricity), or simply don't exist for the diseases we need to treat.

In 1999, we launched the Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines, now known as the Access Campaign. Its mission focuses on three areas: overcoming barriers to access to essential medicines, stimulating research and development for neglected diseases, promoting health exceptions to global trade agreements.

In 2003, MSF joined several research institutes, including the Institut Pasteur, to create the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi), a non-profit research and development organisation engaged in research and development of new treatments for neglected diseases.

 
Website

MSF Access Campaign

msfaccess.org
 
Niger

Food aid basket missing critical ingredients

Press Release 23 Apr 2008
 
Tuberculosis

New priorities, new challenges

Project Update 25 Mar 2008
 
Niger

New York Times: Instant Nutrition

Project Update 31 Jan 2008
 
Neglected diseases

People with AIDS in southeast Asia needlessly becoming blind due to a neglected virus

Press Release 30 Nov 2007
 
Tuberculosis

MSF presentation to the IGWG on the need for development of TB drugs and techniques

Interview 8 Nov 2007
 
Access to medicines

UN health talks could lead to new ways of developing urgently needed drugs and diagnostics

Press Release 5 Nov 2007
 
Malnutrition

Food Is Not Enough - What MSF is calling for

Project Update 10 Oct 2007
 
Malnutrition

Increasing and ensuring the supply of therapeutic RUF

Project Update 10 Oct 2007
 
Malnutrition

Food is not enough: Without essential nutrients millions of children will die

Report 10 Oct 2007
Up Next
30 August 2019