E-DRUG: New book: The Global Politics of Pharmaceutical Monopoly Power
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The Global Politics of Pharmaceutical Monopoly Power by Ellen 't Hoen
Every day, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) is confronted with the lack of
access to adequate or affordable medical tools in the field. We face two
major challenges: the high cost of existing medicines on the one hand,
and the absence of appropriate or effective treatments for many of the
diseases affecting our patients on the other.
This new book by Ellen 't Hoen, former Director of Policy Advocacy for the
MSF Access Campaign, explains why these twin challenges are in fact two
sides of the same coin. More importantly perhaps, it also analyses the
latest mechanisms and policy changes that may help change the broken
system of medical innovation and access to medicines today.
In particular, the book highlights recent alternative mechanisms to
encourage medical R&D in a way that also ensures access to the developed
product by separating the cost of research and development from the price
of diagnostics, medicines, and vaccines.
As such, MSF wholeheartedly welcomes the publication, in the hope that it
may both spur efforts, such as a patent pool, to speed up access to newer
medicines, and boost initiatives that make use of alternative financing
mechanisms in order to develop new, more appropriate treatments that
respond to medical needs.
An open access version of the book is freely available on the MSF Access
Campaign website:
www.msfaccess.org
James Arkinstall
MSF
James.ARKINSTALL@paris.msf.org