3 November 2015, Geneva - Information has emerged that the world's poorest countries - those classified as least-developed countries (LDCs) - have been granted a 17 year exemption from implementing intellectual property provisions, such as patents, on medicines. LDCs had wanted and MSF had advocated for an exemption to be granted for as long as countries were classified as a LDC.

On October 26, 2015 Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) hosted a webcast debate under the title "The high price of medicines" which unpacked important questions about why medicines prices for cancer and hepatitis C medicines are so high; why we still do not have acceptable treatment options for major killers such as tuberculosis; and how deploying new models for research and innovation that do not rely on high prices when developing new antibiotics, can be a game changer for how medicines will be developed in the future.

According to the World Health Organization’s World tuberculosis report 2015, released 28 October, only one in four (26%) of the 480,000 people estimated to have developed multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) in 2014 was diagnosed. Worse, the total number of people diagnosed with MDR-TB globally in 2014 was actually lower than the previous year (123,000 in 2014 vs 136,000 in 2013), although the total estimated number of people who developed MDR-TB remained the same. In 2014, only 58% of previously treated MDR-TB cases were tested for drug resistance; while this marks an improvement over 2013’s rate of 17%, it’s far from the 100% target set for 2015 in the Global Plan to Stop TB (2011-2015). While the number of people put on MDR-TB treatment increased slightly from 97,000 in 2013 to 111,000 in 2014, the cure rate remains desperately low at 50%.

New Delhi, 26 October 2015—As African leaders meet with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi for an African Union-India meeting this week, Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) urged African governments and India to work together to maintain trade in affordable generic medicines that is a lifeline for millions of people in India, Africa and other developing countries.

NGOs urge Commission to align trade, health, research and development policies in comprehensive access to medicines strategy

Kuala Lumpur, 15 July 2013 – As negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement* move to Malaysia this week, Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) urges negotiating countries to remove terms that could block people from accessing affordable medicines, choke off production of generic medicines, and constrain the ability of governments to pass laws in the interest of public health.

Indian government drug tender process leads to deadly delay in drug supply.