Pharmaceutical company Lupin Europe is aiming to bring an existing medicine for a rare muscle disease on the market under a new name and at a much higher price. The Dutch public television programme ‘Kassa’, with more than one million viewers, reported this on November 2nd, showing how this pharmaceutical company uses public research to increase its profit margins. “This is unjustifiable and even condemnable,” says Wemos’ global health advocate Ella Weggen in the programme.
With prices of medicines skyrocketing under the current system of medicine development, the shortcomings of this R&D model are increasingly proving their right. Contributing to the search for possible alternative innovation mechanisms, Wemos, Health Action International and the University of Utrecht brought together representatives of government and academia on the 5th of November, with the event: LICENSING AND PUBLIC GENERATED KNOWLEDGE: SEEKING A SOCIALLY SUSTAINABLE BALANCE
You may have seen them before: the highlights of our work in 2018. But now, we want to share these with you in a clear, fresh new way.
In 2018, the governments of Ghana, Germany and Norway requested the World Health Organization (WHO) to take the lead in an initiative to improve the coordination of international cooperation in the health sector. As a result, 12 multilateral organizations involved in the health sector are preparing a plan to accelerate, align, account and assess their efforts in the health sector for realizing the Sustainable Development Goal for health: SDG3. We applaud this initiative; here is our input for an online civil society consultation.
From May 20-28, the 72nd session of the World Health Assembly (WHA) will take place in Geneva, Switzerland. Each year, senior health officials from the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Member States gather there to discuss the WHO’s progress, new goals and global health agenda and challenges. Wemos will be present as well as a civil society organization and attend sessions on Financing for Health, the Global Action Plan for Healthy Lives and Well-being and Access to Medicines.
There is increasing pressure on access to affordable, innovative medicines for many European citizens. Change is urgently needed. This key message emerges from the joint manifesto by several members of the Medicines Network Netherlands (Medicijnen Netwerk Nederland), of which Wemos is a member. The publication of the manifesto anticipates the European Parliament elections to be held on 23 May 2019.
Wilbert Bannenberg In early March 1979, I – Wilbert Bannenberg, an intern doctor at the time – put a notice on the bulletin board of the Faculty of Medicine at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. I was looking for other students with whom to discuss working as a doctor in low- and middle-income countries. On 19 March 1979, around 20 people gathered in my student room on the second floor of Van Woustraat 47.
The start of the new year calls for some reflection. This is why we have compiled an overview of our highlights of 2018. We are proud of the results of our work for health for all. Have a look!
The granting of supplementary protection certificates for new medicines must be reformed. This is our message in a letter to Minister Bruins (Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport), signed by Wemos, Aidsfonds, Commons Network, the Dutch Pharmaceutical Accountability Foundation, Health Action International (HAI) and the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO).
Today we are launching our new knowledge platform. Do you want to know what Wemos has published on topics such as access to human resources for health or medicines? Or are you looking for reports about financing for health in low-income countries? You can find these (and much more) on our knowledge platform.
