Yet another food scandal is gripping China--tons of melamine-contaminated milk products were seized from warehouses in Chongqing. The milk problem is the the tenth serious food scandal in just the past few years. It provides more evidence of the inability of China's officials, corporations, and consumers to prevent lethal production.
Last week a major international health donor had to admit it had lost over two million dollars of medicines and $34 million in cash to corruption. But the situation is worse than publicly acknowledged and is set to deteriorate further.
It is time for a thorough investigation of drug theft at the Global Fund to ensure that drugs are being used by those intended, rather than encouraging illegal parallel distribution systems, in both recipient nations and nations where products are diverted.
Hope that the Global Fund's commendable effort to unearth corruption and improve its logistics is giving way to fear that money and drugs are continuing to be donated to corrupt actors--a major perversion of donor intent.
US/EU companies that protect their drug brands in turn protect our lives. We need other countries to do more and we need to help them in doing so.
Failing drugs are priced 13-18 percent lower than non-failing drugs, but the signaling effect of price is far from complete.
Setting up experiments and then ignoring the results when they do not give you what you want amounts to scientific malfeasance. All in a day’s work at the UN Environment Program.
There is a lack of incentives driving agencies to actively address the problem of counterfeit medicine--some individuals may care enough to risk their jobs by speaking out, but most keep their mouths shut.
If the US withholds funding to the Global Fund, it could lead to major disruptions in the delivery of life-saving medicines. But tolerating the corruption is arguably worse.
AEI scholars analyze anti-malarial drug samples procured randomly from pharmacies in the largest city in Nigeria, the port of Lagos prior to and after the spectrometers were deployed.
While India is blamed for counterfeiting crucial drugs, a vast Chinese network behind the fakes is getting away.
The counterfeiting of medicines is so prevalent yet totally unaddressed and therefore legal in international criminal law. A counterfeit medicine treaty should be drafted under the auspices of the World Health Organization.
Congressional Staff Foreign Policy Brief
February 3, 2011
Committees of the new US Congress may want to hold hearings concerning halting aid dispersion to the Global Fund in the coming weeks.
DDT is still a critical weapon in the battle against malaria and other insect-borne diseases.
Substandard and counterfeit drugs can be lethal to patients and accelerate drug resistance across at-risk populations.
The global system for public health donations has a crippling accountability problem.
AEI Online
December 22, 2010
A comprehensive study of drug samples in African and Asian countries--assessed for variability by spectrometer--suggests that registered products perform notably better than unregistered products.
Americans pay more--often a lot more--for drugs than Canadians and Europeans. That is unfair, but wholesale importation of drugs from these locations isn't the answer.
This study attempts to ascertain whether registered medicines perform better in simple quality tests than those that are either not registered or not known to be registered.
China is implicated in key fake-drug rings recently broken up across the Middle East and Latin America. Beijing must do more to clamp down on the entire fake industry, which flourishes within its borders.
Drugs donated to developing countries are being stolen by criminal groups, which harms patients, encourages criminal networks, and probably leads to dangerous counterfeiting.
As more and more of our tax dollars fund drugs for poor nations, criminals are making fortunes off our good will. Out of the 100 million high-quality antimalarial dosages donated to Africa, approximately 30 million are diverted.
Speech on the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists, 16th November, 2010. New Orleans
November 16, 2010
The market for counterfeit products is barely understood. Not all counterfeiting is deceptive, so what is the best policy to deal with that reality?
The intent behind a proposed treaty to criminalize the manufacture and trade in counterfeited drugs is good, but only a treaty initiated by the World Health Organization will suffice.
A recent article by leading malaria scientists should set the record straight that malaria growth has not been caused by climate change.
This month Nigeria celebrated the 50th anniversary of its independence from Britain, but it was not a happy occasion, as the nation is still marred by the fundamental problem of a lack of rights for local people.
With more and more medicines or their ingredients sourced from foreign countries, informed patients should be concerned about drug regulation abroad.
This working paper addresses what is probably a significant driver of drug quality--the legislative environment, and in particular, the registration process in which medicines are made and, more critically, sold.
A new policy in Zimbabwe effectively means that all of Zimbabwe's foreign-owned industries are to be nationalized, which may well be the final straw for what's left of Zimbabwe's economy.
The proliferation of fake drugs is one of the greatest dangers facing India today, but the Indian government is touting a new study that is little more than a whitewash of this crucial problem.
A significant portion of antimalarial drugs in Africa have been illegally diverted from the public sector, where they were intended to be dispensed free of charge in public health facilities, to the private sector.
Drug shortages have become a serious problem across East Africa; if oversight does not improve, donor largesse may worsen the health situation there.
There are many website pharmacies, including those from overseas, from which it is almost certainly safe to procure medicines, and U.S. consumers should be able to reduce their risk by relying on credentialing agencies recommended lists and by using common sense when examining packaging and pills.
Buying foreign-made drugs over the Internet from foreign Web pharmacies can be relatively safe.
The process of treating HIV patients in Africa has improved markedly due to cooperation between pharmaceutical companies, which has led to increasing access to higher quality medicines.
Drug quality is probably improving in Lagos, the largest city of Nigeria, and Accra, the capital of Ghana, which each have serious problems with substandard pharmaceuticals.
The decision to award the Nobel Peace Prize to President Obama was an extension of European policy that champions consensus over achievement, but while Obama is still rhetorically European, he will continue to act as an American.
It is vitally important to find all of the root causes of substandard medicines because current policy decisions that concern drug quality often exacerbate problems related to a lack of research.
Innovative licensing agreements between Western and Indian drug companies are leading to sustainable profits and increased access to quality medicines.
Counterfeit drugs have contaminated India's pharmaceutical supply, putting the entire Indian medical system at risk, and can only be stopped by a broader political effort.
India is the world's largest generic drugs manufacturing location but it has a significant problem with counterfeit and substandard drugs.
It is time for Middle Eastern countries to follow Damascus's lead in creating heavy penalties for the fake-pharmaceutical trade.
DDT was the most important life-saving chemical of the past century and, until a better chemical comes along, it will be one of the most important of the first few decades of this century too.
Ending the use of DDT in malarious areas may pose great risks to the health and welfare of people and would be based on flawed analysis.
Israel has already taken important steps to address water shortages, but market-based water pricing is the only way for Israelis and Palestinians to secure long term supplies.
Counterfeit drugs present dangers to society and better quality enforcement is important; it is also important to help people know how to tell whether medicines are safe to use.
Capitalism has come under attack with the economic crisis, the looming threat of climate change, and a broader concern, most recently driven by French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Americans should be permitted to buy medicines online for personal use; there are many sites providing good quality medicines at low prices, and importation for personal use is not likely to undermine the pharmaceutical market.
Georgetown Journal of International Affairs
February 4, 2010
Until governments and industry significantly lowers substandard drugs in developing world markets, a significant health threat remains.
A speculative study about the relationship between the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine and autism in the prestigious British medical journal The Lancet was retracted today for having numerous flaws and insufficient data within it.
Requiring African countries to use international competitive bidding processes for certain drug purchases has caused more harm than good.
Economic Affairs
November 30, 2009
India has enormous potential for drug development if its legal system will respect intellectual property.
Here's how India will become the place for future investment and future pharmacological breakthroughs.
We are at a political impasse in the fight against fake drugs.
More public education would help stem the problem of fake pharmaceuticals--restricting Internet trade would not.
The Legatum Prosperity Index finds countries that dumped the shackles of communism for a system of freedom and political transparency are much more likely to be prosperous.
In this poor economic environment, trade protectionism should be seen as a threat to prosperity, in Australia and around the world.
The 2009 Legatum Prosperity Index found that while Hong Kong and Singapore show strong economic fundamentals, in terms of noneconomic variables such as health, personal freedom, and social capital, these countries need improvement.
The Legatum Institute's Prosperity Index goes a long way toward addressing shortcomings in other measurements of people's well-being around the world.
For prosperity in Africa, what is needed is a holistic approach that focuses on the building blocks that empower Africans to help themselves.
The Legatum Institute's Prosperity Index helps answer the question of how to promote prosperity in Latin America.
According to the Legatum Index, although Australia is very strong on the economic fundamentals required for long-term growth, problems in the health care system are keeping the country from reaching its full potential, in terms of both economic progress and quality of life.
Gross domestic product (GDP) is not a sufficient measurement of prosperity, but the Legatum Institute's Prosperity Index addresses some of the shortcomings of the GDP by measuring a variety of economic and social indicators for people around the world.
India ranked forty-fifth to China's seventy-fifth on parameters of wealth and well-being.
Medicines have to pass through a rigorous series of clinical trials to prove their efficacy and safety; by bypassing systems that are in place, the manufacturers of counterfeit medicines are not only illegally profiting from others' endeavors--they are also putting patients' lives at risk.
Wellcome Trust
October 26, 2009
Myriad responses are required for all parts of the substandard drug problem.
There are many indicators of solid data that can help us broaden measures of well-being far beyond GDP.
Awarding President Obama the Nobel prize, while shocking to many, is merely the logical extension of European, particularly Nordic/Scandinavian, policy for at least the last two decades: as long as one appears to care and says the right things, it does not matter if you do anything useful.
The Indian government is touting a new survey showing a low percentage of drugs within the country are counterfeit. But the reality is that India still has a major problem will poor-quality drugs.
Unless philanthropists insist on market principles in Africa's drug market, and until they apply necessary due diligence when cutting checks, their aid stands to be hijacked by governmental opportunism, incompetence, and corruption.
It is likely that some form of drug reimportation will be approved by the U.S. Congress this year, if not in the next few weeks.
Fake drugs flourish in areas where government oversight is poor and private-sector accountability is weak, but failing to prevent counterfeit drug sales can have deadly consequences.
The donor community and governments are jeopardizing lives through their push for local production.
Many Africans lack access to essential medicines for myriad reasons, including the relatively high price of drugs: local production is unlikely to alleviate this problem.
The donor community indirectly and African governments directly are undermining drug quality through their push for local production.
ConUNdrum: The Limits of the United Nations and the Search for Alternatives
September 1, 2009
Often failing to fulfill its assigned mandates and unable to implement the initiatives it has begun, the UN's World Health Organization desperately needs to reform.
Institute of Economic Affairs
August 24, 2009
The UN's push for a "zero DDT world" ignores the millions of lives DDT has saved over the past century with little-to-no adverse environmental impact and no harm to human health.
This study examines the price, conditions of purchase, and basic quality of five popular drugs purchased over the Internet.
Purchasing drugs over the Internet has significant benefits, but it can also be dangerous.
While safety concerns about drugs purchased over the Internet may be overblown, concerns that the equalization of drug prices will decrease drug innovation are understated.
Buying drugs online may not be as dangerous as you think.
For at least three decades, Nigeria has been plagued by counterfeit and poor quality medicines, but today it offers a rare model of improvement.
An informal survey of doctors, pharmacists, health care workers in Lagos, Ondo, and Ogun, and a pilot quality assessment of essential drugs from Lagos pharmacies.
Turkish-made pharmaceutical products are generally of high quality, but significant trade flows allow unscrupulous suppliers greater opportunity to provide substandard products to the market.
Recent court decisions in India endanger drug investment.
The revitalization of the political and think tank culture in Britain is vital or there is a risk of more of the same when David Cameron inevitably wins office next year.
Cricket and baseball are twin brothers, separated at birth.
The drive to combat counterfeit drugs is a good one, but there are problems with Kenya's legislation and the pending legislation in Uganda, which could have serious implications for the importation and production of generic drugs.
There are always costs of both action and inaction; however, before a costly scheme is funded, better evidence of its effectiveness should be established.
The drug regulatory system in India needs to be improved for domestic consumption and because India is an increasingly important exporter of drugs for both developed and developing countries.
Ranbaxy's run-in with the FDA illustrates problems in developing-world drug production, but is there a place for less stringent quality standards?
Drug importation would harm Americans' health and jeopardize future developments in medical science.
Michela Wrong's new book highlights a key problem: corruption can undermine democracy.
Government agencies, the pharmaceutical industry, and humanitarian organizations must work together to stamp out counterfeit drugs.
More than 1 billion people on Earth live without access to clean water.
The United Nations plans to advocate drastic reductions in the use of DDT, which kills or repels the mosquitoes that spread malaria.
Illegally copying a trademark is an important indicator of counterfeiting, although not necessarily of substandard drug quality.
A recent case reveals that it is not only generic firms from middle income countries that have problems with good manufacturing practice.
The majority of the antimalarial products on sale in Kenya are neither brands nor generics but copy products of unknown provenance and variable quality.
New technologies can help African countries identify counterfeit or substandard drugs.
DDT is a proven effective anti-malaria measure, but the United Nations has abandoned science for the sake of political correctness.
The counterfeit drug trade is a problem that Beijing can cure.
How to give Zimbabwe the boost it needs without propping up Robert Mugabe.
Americans have for many years been paying the world's highest prices for pharmaceuticals--but is it more than their fair share?
Why do rich nations elect to fund global health campaigns to tackle problems with no supra national element at all, such as obesity or smoking?
China, a major link in the world's pharmaceutical supply chain, is taking steps and forming international partnerships to improve drug safety and combat drug counterfeiting.
Regional and local officials are taking the initiative to stop the deadly and odious trade of counterfeit and substandard drugs in India.
Extending expiration dates is the cheapest remedy for the world's most prevalent epidemic.
Many deaths that occur from malaria each year could be avoided if antimalarial drugs were effective, of good quality, and used correctly.
Every anticapitalist and antiglobalisation group is represented in London with myriad dangerous demands.
Zimbabwe can take a page out of Liberia's playbook.
Several European nations are turning away from vaccination and are now spreading disease.
India's major pharmaceutical companies and its public health community want to establish a modern drug regulatory system.
Malaria is becoming increasingly resistant to even the most modern drugs--largely due to badly made or counterfeit medicine.
The Food and Drug Administration has very real shortcomings. But is new regulation the best solution?
Many aid groups who purchase generic drugs for developing countries do not require evidence of bioequivalence.
Can the shelf-life of fixed dose combination artemether-lumefantrine be extended?
There is new hope in Zimbabwe, or at least that is what everyone wants to believe.
To sustain the fight against insect-borne diseases, we must improve research funding for public health insecticides.
The World Health Organization's anti-counterfeit drug task force should broaden its scope to fight the scourge of substandard pharmaceuticals.
It is time for Chinese authorities to boost the independence and transparency of their legal system.
Substandard drugs put the health of millions at risk. More needs to be done to increase safety standards.
Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe does not recognize any African authority.
Africa's leaders have helped Robert Mugabe remain in power.
Africa Fighting Malaria is calling on the WHO, donor agencies, and other stakeholders to provide more investmentfor insecticides.
Economic Affairs
December 12, 2008
The EU's new regulations on pesticide use are designed to protect public health. But they could end up harming it instead.
Zimbabwe's kleptocrats are at war with their own people.
Abuse of the tort system by trial lawyers is driving safe drugs from the market and patients from mainstream medicine.
Despite all its good work, the Gates Foundation is encouraging a harmful trend among malaria activists.
The cholera epidemic in Zimbabwe may be spreading to other African nations.
Today, cholera can easily be controlled by maintaining simple sanitary standards--but there is no running water in much of Zimbabwe, and sanitation systems have collapsed.
Recently approved legislation should help India in its battle against substandard pharmaceutical products.
The proliferation of low-quality and counterfeit drugs is one of the most pressing problems in delivering life-saving medicines to the world's poorest patients.
What can the world do to help Zimbabwe?
Ranbaxy continues to supply the developing world with drugs that are not checked for quality.
To motivate businesses to ensure product safety and thus encourage durable growth, China must allow free news media and courts that uphold the law instead of the status quo.
Fake drugs kill thousands of people each day, thanks to counterfeiters in China and India who mix chalk, dust, and dirty water into pills sold around the world.
A new global subsidy to give malaria patients the best treatment may divert money from simpler campaigns and could undermine drug quality.
Beijing has a major problem with food contamination. The British solved a similar dilemma in the 1800s.
As Beijing attempts to address the latest food scandal to rock China, countries around the world are demanding action to prevent the spread of contamination.
Ranbaxy continues to supply the developing world with drugs that are not checked for quality.
President Mugabe's military backers refuse to give up any real power, jeopardizing the recently signed power-sharing agreement.
Chinese officials are scrambling to save children's lives from its latest food scare--contaminated milk products.
AEI Online
September 18, 2008
Aid agencies, advocates, and national governments have a responsibility to ensurethatbillions of dollars inpharmaceutical procurementare spent on safe, effective, life-saving drugs.
To stem the contamination crisis, Chinese officials should be giving handheld spectrometers to their key regulators.
Economic Affairs
September 18, 2008
Why doesBeijing have so much troublestopping the exportation of dangerous drugs?
What can thenew government of Zimbabwe do about the economic devastation plaguing the country?
The debate over patent breaking in Thailand comes to Capitol Hill.
India is a center for drug counterfeiting, a deadly business that is spreading to the United States and Europe.
Olympic visitors might consider steering clear of military-owned hospitals where they could run the risk of being treated with substandard or counterfeit medicines.
Afghanistan has made undeniable progress on public health. But will it be sustainable?
The United States and the European Union need to make sensible policy changes to reduce the likelihood of future counterfeit drug tragedies.
The global health community must strengthen its commitment to protect patients from poor-quality medicines.
While the international community, the African Union, and Zimbabwe's neighbors may not be able to stop Robert Mugabe, the economy might.
Beijing is taking Draconian measures to clean up for the Olympic Games starting next month.
Billionfold inflation may do to Robert Mugabe what he would not allow Zimbabwean voters to do: end his rule.
As the British military drafts plans for humanitarian intervention, all eyes are on Zimbabwe's neighbors.
Openness to trade and higher volumes of trade can have positive health benefits.
Most anti-malarial drugs are obtained in the private sector and few of the widely discussed drugs are actually bought by most Africans.
Regime change in Zimbabwemay be only a few weeks away.
Robert Mugabe's apologists--including the former Mozambican president--are helping to keep alive his odious regime.
Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe continues to threaten anyone who will vote against him in next week's elections.
DDT had come under fire from larger corporations and environmentalists. But it is saving lives in Southern Africa.
Openness to trade and higher volumes of trade can have positive health benefits.
Counterfeit pharmaceuticals in Southeast Asia could pose a serious global health risk.
In Africa and Southeast Asia, drugs successfully used for years to combat malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV are failing more and more often.
Drugs purchased by government aid agencies and NGOs using taxpayer dollars are often substandard and dangerous.
New research indicates that many drugs bought by developed-world governments and NGOs fail crucial quality tests.
The high persistence of substandard drugs and clinically inappropriate artemisinin monotherapies inAfrica risks patient safety and endangers the future of malaria treatment.
The new Thai government is following the path of its predecessors, breaking drug patents and not spending enough on health.
New Delhi has a dodgy record on safeguarding intellectual property rights. Here is how it could improve.
Malaria country governments, donors, UN agencies, and advocates should focus on policy reforms needed to achieve sustained improvement in malaria treatment outcomes in Africa.
Drug regulation in China needs to be enforcedin order to prevent fatalcontaminants.
The recent heparin case illustrates that the high cost of health care cannot be combatted with the importation of cheaper drugs, many of which are risky andineffective.
AEI Online
April 24, 2008
Forthirty years, the fight against malaria has been long on rhetoric and short on action. But for the first time since the 1960s, malaria is being fought effectively on a global scale.
Rolling back the insect-borne disease will require better coordination between aid agencies and private companies.
Multilateral organizations in conjunction with the FDA must do more to expose the problem of counterfeit drugs and help countries tighten regulatory controls.
To stay inpower, Robert Mugabe has a German company printing worthless bank notes to bribe officials in the public sector, army, and other public-security servicesin Zimbabwe.
Members of the World Health Organizationare blamingthe spreadof malaria on global warming when the real culprit was modern transportation.
Members of the World Health Organizationare blamingthe spreadof Malaria on global warming; however, diseases are not restricted to certain climates and poor countries.
The government's lack of spending on health care in Thailand is a scandal and it is furthered by their high drug prices.
Members of the European Parliament are against the use of pesticides, but also want to stop the spread of malaria.
If patent laws are thrown out in India's high court, it could jeopardize the world's patent system.
Hopefully Thailand’s patent fight will increase global awareness on the replication of branded drugs.
Permitting slightly higher drug prices today will guarantee incentives for innovation and development tomorrow.
A new proposal from the United Nations would alter the traditional role of drug companies and governments, leading to fewer drugs for developing world diseases.
The Gates Foundation has been a massively positive influence on malaria research, but it is still criticized.
As aid agencies vacillate, the crisis in East Africa is getting worse.
Zimbabwe has been enduring a crisis without a great deal of political support, but there is hope that a new regional leadership will address the current issues.
The distribution of prescription drugs is a major issue in world politics because the cost of drugs is preventing access to treatment.
AEI Online
February 1, 2008
Production of pharmaceuticals in developing countries can promote growth--but only when the market prescribes it.
When the research-based pharmaceutical industry gives up investing in innovation, where will new medicines come from?
The cost of corruption is visible today in Thailand and Kenya.
AEI Online
January 1, 2008
Africa has received far more health aid than ever before, but the results have been generally disappointing and occasionally even counterproductive.
African nations have to be much more transparent in their health systems work in order to stamp out corruption.
Counterfeit and substandard pharmaceuticals are a massive problem, and international bodies need to confront them head-on.
How should we price life-saving drugs? Not the Oxfam way.
Researchers and pharmacologists around the world are working on new drugs, but their efforts are complicated by the murderous opportunists who fake legitimate products.
It may be time for drug companies to invest only in countries that truly protect intellectual property rights.
Local production is not necessarily the answer to pharmaceutical shortages in Africa.
Though DDT has proven to control malaria better than any other intervention, opposition to its use continues to mount.
Improving hygiene in hospitals is a cost-effective way to save lives and avoid lawsuits.
AEI Online
November 5, 2007
DDT has been more effective against malaria than any other intervention, but inaction and political hostility may halt its recent renaissance.
How many more must die of malaria for no good reason?
Activist groups should join together in support of an anti-malaria insecticide that could save millions of lives.
How many more must die of malaria for no good reason?
In attempting to ban pesticides, policymakers are overlooking the risk of insect-borne diseases.
Martin Meredith's new book offers a painful look at the formation of modern South Africa.
When good medical journalism exposes abuses at international health NGOs and governmental organizations, public health benefits.
As the Gates Foundation meets this week, it should take a closer look at the "global subsidy" campaign.
AEI Online
October 10, 2007
Dirty hospitals, unsafe blood, and widespread use of injections make health care dangerous, in both developed and developing countries.
How Robert Mugabe ruined his country, and what the world can do about it.
Why ignore theWorld Health Organization's medical advice?
The business of counterfeit medicines is exploding, and it is killing poor Africans.
The World Health Organizationhas just endorsed medicines that havenotpassed muster with western regulators.
An on-the-ground report on how malaria control is going in Uganda.
The health service, like the entire country, requires rescuing from the murderous hands of Robert Mugabe.
AEI Online
August 9, 2007
Differential pricing is necessary to provide suffering people in poor countries access to needed medicines and ensure that medical innovation will continue in the future.
Australia's water management is still leading the way, even in drought.
A discussion of world water markets and various countries' water policies.
What if Muslim clerics were held to the same standards as Pfizer?
Many malaria sufferers are receiving unsafe, low-quality drugs. The FDA and the Global Fund must act to change this.
Counterfeit and substandard medicines are a huge roadblock for global health, so why do large NGOs not do more to stop them?
The developed nations are happy to send aid, but reluctant to ask uncomfortable questions.
To make people healthier, new World Bank president Robert Zoellick should step back and let other organizations take the lead.
Whenever the Thai government defiesforeign drug patents and creates its own cheap copies of drugs, it endangers the patients who need the drugs and undermines drug discovery.
Rachel Carson was a progenitor of the environmental movement, and she should share some of the blame, as well as the praise, forits impact.
It may be everywhere, but it is scarce as well.The solution of efficient water use can be found in a nation undergoing the worst drought in 1,000 years: Australia.
A recentvote putting Zimbabwe in charge of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development does not make it any easier to take the body seriously.
The World Health Organization used to be effective in eradicating diseases, but pointless targeting and kowtowing to political correctness have harmed global health.
Grand goals will only help world health if they can be measured--and achieved.
The malaria community cannot remain silent in the face of attacks against the use of DDT.
A tiered model--based on ability to pay--is best, but will only work if the industry stands up for itself.
Prospects for malaria control are now brighter than they have been in decades.
Funding for malaria control has increased significantly over the past decade, but it is still unclear whether that funding is actually saving lives.
India is at a crossroads. It can follow the route it has taken in software engineering, or it can travel the opposite route with idiosyncratic rules that limit growth and innovation.
An interview with Roger Bate about the World Bank, the IMF, and the Wolfowitz scandal.
Under what circumstances should compulsory licensing for drugs be used?
The Thai government is breaking patents on Western drugs, but such actionwill haveconsequences for theThailand,afflicted patients, and global health.
Thailand's government is breaking Western pharmaceutical patents--not for health reasons, but for its own financial gain.
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria will only be as effective as its procurement process allows.
AEI Online
March 23, 2007
Problems with procurement, corruption, and intellectual property threaten new and innovative malaria treatments.
Eradicating corruption from the health sector through the removal of tariffs is vital.
A brave band of reformers is taking on Kenya’s endemic culture of corruption.
Innovation by India's internationally competitive scientists suffersfrom the Indian government'sprotectionist policies.
Countries seeking toaid Liberia should focus on pressing problems and not their own pet projects.
Help for medicinal innovation in Thailand is coming from an unlikely source.
A new initiative by Senator Tom Coburn could bringtransparency to the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria.
As thecost of drug development continues to rise, patent wars in Asia threaten to weaken efficient pricing.
As Thailand overrides patents on foreign drugs, the only winner will be the government.
AEI Online
February 7, 2007
India is at a crossroads: it can protectintellectual property orlimit growth and innovation.
India has a choice: itcan either follow the route it has taken in software engineering or it can travel the opposite route with idiosyncratic rules that limit growth and innovation.
AEI scholars respond to the State of the Union address.
Efforts to improve global health are often crippled by a state of denial.
Given the poor track record of foreign aid in developing countries, simply sending more aid would be counterproductive unless drastic changes are made.
Many more lives could be saved with indoor residual spraying using DDT as part ofa malaria control program.
With little fanfare, businesses are trying to fight disease in Africa. The best spur to benevolence: the profit motive.
USAID is still charged with prioritizing Western values in foreign policy as well as meeting humanitarian need, yet its mission in health has often been obscured.
Gaddafi's blameshifting on AIDS in Libya exposes how many African countries try to cover up their failures by blaming the very countries that wish to help them.
There is no doubt the Global Health Bureau of the U.S. Agency for International Development is moving foreign assistance in the right direction.
AEI Online
December 13, 2006
To make essential drugs available to needy patients in poor countries, those countries need to take down their trade barriers.
Global health depends as much on the participation of people in impoverished countries as it does on philanthropic Western donors.
USAID's approach to fighting malaria by building in-country capacity to control malaria will be the true test of its reforms moving forward.
Another World AIDS Day has arrived today and, although hard to believe, the situation across the globe is worse than before.
AEI Online
November 30, 2006
Over 1.6 million people in the poorest parts of the world are now on antiretroviral treatment to halt the advance of HIV, but in a rush to improve access, mistakes have been made.
Health care is taking up more and more of government budgets globally, and corruption is probably rising faster in health care than almost any other sector.
Excessive tariffs on essential medicines hurt global health.
Debates about which tools and strategies work best against malaria are fraught, but there are some things that can be agreed upon.
The World Bank's malaria program does not appear to comply with the World Health Organization's technical guidelines.
The World Bank should stick to its core mission of funding health systems and get out of the disease control business.
AEI Online
October 2, 2006
The South African health minister defends her country's record on HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment.
Tragically, the World Bank’s mishandling of scientific issues has serious consequences--consequences that kill patients.
As much of Asia struggles with water shortages, Australia’s agricultural sector is thriving, despite its worst drought in decades.
By maintaining the dogma of South African failure, U.N. officials such as Stephen Lewisdeflect attention from other AIDS actor’s mistakes and contribute to the perpetuation of poor policy.
It would be tragic if Afghanistan's future leaders were more worried about keeping its aid donors happy than pleasing its electorate.
Arid countries should adopt Australia's water trading policies.
Leaders of developing countries should not wait for U.S. and EU action, but should restart the Doha Development round by taking the simple, initial step required to help their own people--implementing national tariff policies that eliminate tariffs and taxes on essential medicines.
Advocates the bill for a new Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act requiring the government to maintain a single public website listing the names and locations of all individuals and groups receiving federal funds.
The world’s largest countries face future water crises, but Australia points the way forward in water property rights.
AEI Online
August 4, 2006
How do regulatory barriers restrict access medication in developing countries?
With Warren Buffett’s largesse added to his own, Bill Gates has about $60 billion to spend on health and development. How should he spend it?
Alarmists have been crying wolf about water wars for years, but like many green exaggerations they have a kernel of truth.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation should be commended for supporting HIV and malaria clinical research. However, it has avoided dirtying its hands by staying away from on-the ground interventions.
Developing countries claim the West cheats them out of cheap drugs. But they are often the ones erecting barriers to their citizens’ health.
Is property right protection vital for development and conservation in Zimbabwe and the rest of Africa?
The most important U.S. aid vehicle, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), has failed disastrously in its mission.
The world’s poor and those in need of medicines would be better off if the WHO took different approaches to pharmaceutical development.
The World Bank is failing miserably on malaria, like it failed on HIV/AIDS before.
What can the World Health Organization and the World Bank to do avoid mission creep?
Testimony to thePresident’s Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA), the first part emphasizing the strainrelated to tariffs on medicines, markups and access to essential medical interventions and the second part regarding mission creep in aid agencies.
A review of William Easterly's The White Man's Burden.
AEI Online
April 25, 2006
How has mission creep affected the World Health Organization's and World Bank's efforts to combat malaria?
How will the World Bank's new plan help combat malaria?
In a new Lancet paper my colleagues and I point out that the World Bank has failed in its anti-malaria program. So what now?
Provision of healthcare in China and Asia has failed to keep pace with economic growth and environmental strain.
Having successfully incorporated market forces into other areas of its booming economy, it's time to extend the same approach to the environment.
A review of Sebastian Mallaby's The World's Banker.
How are HIV and AIDS affecting the population of Sierra Leone?
What can the average Joe do to help fight malaria?
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