In The News

India's Pharma Ache

Yogi Aggarwal November 4, 2004
By mastering the process of reverse engineering, the Indian pharmaceutical industry has successfully produced generic drugs at low prices – crucial for providing affordable treatment to those in need. The government's impending adoption of Trips (Trade Related Intellectual Property in Services), a WTO measure, may significantly hamper the industry's success. If the Indian parliament...

Scientists Herald Malaria Breakthrough

Sarah Boseley October 15, 2004
Each year, according to estimates from the World Health Organization, 300 to 500 million cases of malaria occur, and more than one million people die of the disease. Recent clinical trials in Mozambique indicate that a vaccine for malaria may be on the horizon. Human trials have shown that the vaccine protected some infants from the disease altogether and reduced the severity of malaria in...

Rolling Stoned

Seema Sirohi August 10, 2004
Hollywood’s casting of two Asian Americans in lead roles has caught the attention of the non-US press. Writing for Outlook India, Seema Sirohi says that “Harold and Kumar go to White Castle,” which features one Korean American and one Indian American as its protagonists, “makes cinematic history as the first mainstream film with not one but two Asian leads as real as any other twentysomething...

Myanmar: Sanctions Won't Work

Jeffrey Sachs July 27, 2004
Fourteen years ago Myanmar’s National League for Democracy (NLD) won an election against Myanmar's incumbent military government. After the elections, however, the military annulled the results, leading the US to impose economic sanctions against Myanmar’s government. Economist Jeffrey Sachs, head of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, argues in this op-ed that the USA should not...

Retro-Virals: Major Pact for Cheap Drugs

Arthit Khwankhom July 14, 2004
Thailand, Brazil, China, the Russian Federation, Nigeria and the Ukraine have signed a pact at the 15th International Aids Conference in Bangkok to cooperate in the production of generic drugs, lend mutual support in the improvement of respective health sectors, and pursue further research and development on HIV/AIDS drugs. This group of countries, all of whom have large populations of AIDS...

International AIDS Conference: Prime Minister Heckled at Opening

Phermsak Lilakul July 12, 2004
Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was accused of being a liar when he pledged equal medical access for AIDS patients at the 15th International Aids Conference in Thailand. Controversy at the opening ceremonies centered around the Prime minister’s three-month-long, all-out war on drugs last year that resulted in the questionable deaths of more than 2,500 people. In Thailand, intravenous...

China Seeks Low-Cost Drugs for AIDS Patients

Jason Leow June 30, 2004
HIV-AIDS in China has now infected almost a million people, according to official statistics. With at least 80,000 suffering from full-blown AIDS, the Chinese government is trying to find cheaper ways to treat them. Patented drugs from global pharmaceutical companies can cost up to 40,000 yuan a year – many times the average annual income in China. Under the rules of the World Trade...