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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
 
MSF protest against sofosbuvir patent in Munich
Access to medicines

20 years on, the access-to-medicines battle is going global

Op-Ed 27 Sep 2019
 
AskPharma Protest
Access to medicines

6 things Big Pharma doesn’t want you to know!

Project Update 26 Sep 2019
 
Pneumonia vaccination - Greek islands
Access to medicines

Gavi should stop awarding special funds to Pfizer and GSK for pneumonia vaccine

Press Release 26 Aug 2019
 
MSF Moreh Clinic
Tuberculosis

Promising new tuberculosis drug pretomanid approved, but will it be affordable?

Press Release 15 Aug 2019
 
Nsanje: Treating advanced HIV
Access to medicines

Gilead fails to keep promise on access to lifesaving drug for people living with HIV

Press Release 27 Jun 2019
 
Arnal Lual, a snakebite patient in the post-op ward
Snakebite

WHO launches strategy to cut snakebite deaths and disabilities in half

Press Release 23 May 2019
 
Pneumonia vaccination - Greek islands
Access to medicines

Humanitarian mechanism for vaccines used for first time in Europe to counter high prices

Press Release 12 Apr 2019
 
Snakebite MSF Project - Abdurafi, Ethiopia
Snakebite

“The first ten minutes are critical”: treating snakebite in Ethiopia

Voices from the Field 14 Feb 2019
 
2018 Union Conference - Johnson & Johnson (J&J) protest
Access to medicines

TB activists challenge patent in India, in bid to prevent J&J from extending monopoly

Press Release 8 Feb 2019
Up Next
30 August 2019