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Lives in the Balance: Lack of HIV and TB treatment 22 February 2012 Maung Myint, a HIV and TB patient, tells us about his struggle to get life saving treatment in Myanmar. To help patients like Maung MSF launches a new report on the dire lack of treatment for HIV and TB in Myanmar, as donors slash future funding. 37 year old man co-infected with HIV and multi-drug resistant TB or MDR-TB. Photo: Greg Constantine Maung Myint, “I believe ART will be... Read more View document online	Dadaab: Back to square one 16 February 2012 MSF launches 'Dadaab: Back to square one' Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) launches today a public communication called “Dadaab: Back to square one.” The international medical organisation takes stock of the current humanitarian situation and operational challenges in Dadaab, Kenya, home to the world’s largest refugee camp. The open report also reviews the emergency response MSF provided throughout 2011... Read more View document online
STOP Norvatis 14 February 2012 For the past 6 years drug giant Novartis has been pursuing a legal case in India that threatens access to life-saving affordable medicines for millions across the developing world. As the case now opens before the Indian Supreme Court, join MSF & tell Novartis that people matter more than profits. TAKE ACTION NOW: Join MSF & tell Novartis patients matter more than profits About the Novartis Drop the Case Campaign Timeline of Key... Read more	Syria: Witnesses speak out against violence and abuses 08 February 2012 The Syrian regime is conducting a campaign of unrelenting repression against people wounded in demonstrations and the medical workers trying to treat them. While MSF cannot work directly in Syria, it has collected testimonies from wounded Download the report Syria: Medicine as a Weapon of Persecution patients treated outside the country and from doctors inside Syria. These 15 testimonies, from... Read more
Voice from the Field: Marilize Ackerman is back from Haiti 01 February 2012 Marilize holds one of the premature babies, or ‘petit poids’ in Choscal Hospital, Cite Soleil. Photo: MSF MSF South Africa recruit, Marilize Ackerman (33), recently returned home after working in Haiti for eight months with MSF as a Human Resources and Finance Manager. She worked on two MSF hospital projects in the island nation’s capital Port-au-Prince. Here she gives a glimpse into life in Haiti two... Read more	Q&A on patents in India and the Novartis case 01 February 2012 Hundreds of activists gathered in New Delhi to protest Novartis's attack on India's patent laws in 2007. MSF and others continue to oppose the legal case today. Photo: MSF Q: Why do millions of people rely on India for affordable medicines? A: Drugs produced by companies in India are among the cheapest in the world. That is because until 2005, India did not grant patents on medicines. India is one of the few developing countries... Read more
About the Novartis Drop the Case Campaign 01 February 2012 In 2006 the drug company Novartis took the Indian government to court over its patent law, in a move that threatened access to affordable medicines produced in India for millions of people across the developing world. The company wanted to get the law changed so that they could more easily extend the patents on their products, and stop generic companies producing the same medicines at a fraction of the price. MSF’s Drop the Case campaign, launched in response to this... Read more	Timeline of Key Events in Novartis's attack on the pharmacy of the developing world 01 February 2012 1994 – India signs the World Trade Organization (WTO)‘s Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement) which means that it must now start granting patents on medicines no later than 2005. 2003 - Novartis launches its imatinib mesylate as a blood cancer medicine (brand name: Gleevec) in the US at $2,600 per patient per month. Generic versions of Gleevec soon become available in India for under $200 per patient per... Read more
What Novartis Says... and Why it's wrong 01 February 2012 What Novartis says: “price doesn’t affect access to medicines”. In a statement issued in 2010, Novartis writes that “acknowledging innovation by granting a patent is unrelated to the access to medicines issue. Improving access to medicines is a matter of making medicines available.” This is not the entire truth. MSF’s field experience in many developing countries shows that when a patent is granted it has a direct bearing... Read more	South Sudan: "They slit the throats of the two boys in front of us" 25 January 2012 Patient Testimonies from Jonglei State, South Sudan Patient testimony of a 24-year-old woman who was shot in the leg and the cheek during the attack on Lekwongole on December 27, 2011, when her three-year-old daughter, her only child, was abducted. A 24 year-old woman who was shot in the leg and in the cheek in the attack on Lekwongole on December 27th, 2011. Her only daughter, 3, was abducted. Photo: Heather Whelan/MSF... Read more