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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
 
Access to medicines

Stop the spin, the backdoor policies and the closed-door negotiations that threaten access to affordable medicines

Project Update 8 Nov 2010
 
Global

Seven years on

Project Update 27 Oct 2010
 
Access to medicines

First patent goes into the medicines patent pool drug companies must now follow suit

Press Release 30 Sep 2010
 
Access to medicines

Lack of funding undercuts opportunities to overcome global health threats

Press Release 20 Sep 2010
 
Ethiopia

In Imey Somali region Ethiopia distance to health care is often overwhelming

Project Update 14 Sep 2010
 
Neglected diseases

MSF and DNDi call for a more rounded resolution on Chagas disease

Project Update 17 May 2010
 
India

Victory for access to medicines as valganciclovir patent is rejected in India

Press Release 6 May 2010
 
HIV/AIDS

Free Trade Agreement: Trading away the lives of people living with HIV/AIDS

Project Update 28 Apr 2010
 
Global

AIDS care gap between Europe and southern countries risks becoming a chasm

Press Release 9 Mar 2010
Up Next
30 August 2019