Information : Cholera : MSF Australia

ACCESS to medicines

MSF is advocating for a combination of policies to lower drug prices on a sustainable basis; these strategies include encouraging generic competition, voluntary discounts on branded drugs, global procurement, and local production. MSF is also pushing for increased research into neglected diseases – such as tuberculosis, malaria, sleeping sickness, and leishmaniasis – through increased funding, investing in research and development (R&D) capability in developing countries, and supporting alternative models for R&D.

To address the issue of abandoned drugs, MSF is calling on companies and governments to find solutions to bring unprofitable but medically necessary drugs back into production. MSF is also supporting developing countries in codifying into law the "safeguards" that are allowed under international trade rules in order to protect access to medicines.

As a medical humanitarian organization, it is fundamentally unacceptable to MSF that access to essential medicines is increasingly impossible, particularly for the most common global infectious diseases. Launched in November 1999, the Access to Essential Medicines Campaign is the vehicle through which MSF has been advocating for lower prices of existing medicines, to bring abandoned drugs back into production, to stimulate research and development for diseases that primarily affect the poor, and to overcome other barriers to access.

Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi)
In 2003, MSF joined forces with six other organisations from around the world to establish the Drugs For Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi), with the goal of developing new drugs or new formulations of existing drugs for patients suffering from the most neglected diseases. DNDi seeks to address unmet needs by taking on projects that others are unable or unwilling to pursue. Learn more about the DNDi by clicking here.

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