One possible bad news about generic medicines.

I could not belive what I have been reading in past weeks.

France, England and Germany are pushing to stop generic medicines from Indian factories.

MSF talks about this in the following link.

I take the chance to remember that around 5 million people´s treatments depend on this Indian production. And as you could guess this 5 million people are mainly Africans that would not be able to afford more expensive treatments.

I just hope that we, the Europeans, can stop this blockage to happen.

Good news about drug patents.

Not long a go a I came across with this news that cheered me up:

The Guardian 30 September 2010:

The National Institutes of Health in the US announced today that it would license an Aids drug to the new Geneva-based medicines patent pool, so cheap copies can be made for poor countries.

I consider this one of those things that could foster the positve trend towards a better life for the people in economic disadvantage.

One toast for this news!

ONE ACTION for reducing global poverty and adressing climate change.

Hi,

Although the financial crisis of the last two years was caused by bankers in rich countries, many people in developing countries were badly affected - over 50 million more people were plunged into poverty as a result. Europe's leaders have a chance to redress the balance when they meet this month, when they will discuss how they might raise money from new financial regulations, to pay for any future bail outs governments might give them.

I just signed a petition asking the President of the European Commission to ensure leaders agree to dedicate a substantial percentage of any money raised from financial regulations to go towards reducing global poverty and addressing climate change.

Please join me by taking action here:

Thanks!

You can read more about it from a recent entry in this blog: For a 2010 with less hunger

Good News!! Fewer maternal and child deaths than we thought!!

Death rates among women in childbirth in developing countries have dropped by a third in the last 28 years.
Read more at the Guardian

Child deaths worldwide seem to have fallen faster than officials thought, as a new study estimates far fewer children are dying every year than previously guessed by the United Nations.
Read more at The Guardian

These two Millennium Development Goals are more achievable.
Read more from the last Summit on the Millennium Development Goals (September 2010)

Access to essential medicines: A very good news!

An Indian court has stopped the international pharmaceutical company Bayer’s latest attempt to introduce new measures to prevent generic competition in India. By ruling against Bayer on 9 February 2010, the Delhi High Court has refused to undermine measures in India’s patent laws that help ensure access to more affordable essential medicines for patients in need.

Read more at MSF web page

For a 2010 with less hunger.

Lately and for the forthcoming future we are used to receive information about how bad is the financial situation for us, the western people: rising unemployed levels, people not being able to pay the mortgages, banks not giving money to new enterprising that easily...

I would like to draw attention to what I consider the media, and ourselves, are not dealing according with its importance.

The F.A.O. estimates that about 1 billion people in the word are undernourished. They consider hunger has increased because high domestic food prices, lower incomes and increasing unemployment due to the global economic crisis. We can see more hunger statistics as well as an interactive hunger map.

There is also another web page that I consider could help us to make it relative and to make it priority our problems. In it we can easy notice that about 28000 people died daily because of not having enough to eat. At the same time, we can easily realize that more that 100,000 $ are spent daily in U.S.A. in weight loss programs.

The good news, and that should foster us, is that N.G.O. like Action Against Hunger considers that we can eradicate it (1min 35 sec video). At least, it could be addressed and stop the yearly death of 5 million infants.

I consider an enormous step forward the RUFT(Ready-to-use Therapeutic Foods). And these can be locally produced! Even small-scale production is possible, and thus contributing to the economic development of the country!

You can see an UNICEF video about the RUTF saving lives in Ethiopia.

Another important issue is that around 8,000 people die daily in Africa due to easy treatable diseases.

I take this chance to let you know that as from 15th of January 2008 a friend of mine and myself are carrying out a 24h fast. The 3-6 Euros that we save in food are given to a NGO that fights against hunger.

This way we help a bit and we come aware of what hunger could feel and how huge our human capacities are.

Sincerely,

oscgim

P.S. I believe that a 24h monthly fast, with about 100-300 Calories (kilo-calories) coming from sucrose (3-4 sugar sachets), a tinny amount of salt and about 2-5 litres of water is is not a harm for a healthy person.

P.D.2. Read about ONE action related to this issue in a more recent entry.

We, EU, are giving difficulties for the acces to essential drugs.

EU 'putting drug companies before health'

The European Union is contradicting world trade rules by putting the interests of big drug companies before the 2 billion people in the world who cannot access essential medicines, according to a new report.

This above has been published by OneWorld net.

Oxfam International has published the following:

The European Union is contradicting world trade rules by putting the interests of big drug companies before the 2 billion people in the world who cannot access essential medicines, according to a new report issued today by Oxfam International and Health Action International Europe.

MSF are already launching a campaign: mailing the farmaceutical companies in order to get some medicines within the patent pool for HIV medicine (that could easy this situation).

In my opinion: the worst is to realize that as Europeans, we are "giving money to the poor" and on the other hand we are "making life difficult" to them.