Global Health Matters

5 March 2018 - By Laetitia Bigger
Vaccines: Reflecting on 2017 and what’s on the 2018 horizon 2017 has shown how the power of collaboration and partnership is vital in extending the benefits of vaccines to an ever-growing number of people. Let me take you through some of the key moments for vaccines in 2017 and look ...
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27 February 2018 - By Thomas B. Cueni
This interview was first published on NZZ on 24 February 2018. Interview by Birgit Voigt   NZZ on Sunday: Why is the pharmaceutical industry not developing more new antibiotics? Thomas Cueni: Today, there is simply no economically realistic business model that would justify investments of over one billion Swiss Francs ...
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On a TripAdvisor Bangkok forum[1] Gary asks “Can I purchase antibiotics (in Thailand) without a prescription if I run out?”. roverEngland replies: “Yes I get my antibiotics no problem without doctors note in Bangkok. Also they are 1/4 price of what I would pay in UK.”, another writes “Whatever antibiotics ...
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22 January 2018 - By Thomas B. Cueni
This blog was first published on Life Science Leader on 22 January 2018 As we start 2018, those of us in the healthcare sector are anticipating greater progress in global health. Without a doubt, healthcare has been transformed over the past five decades, through innovation in both prevention and treatment ...
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There is no doubt: Africa will dominate global population dynamics in the 21st century. While public attention has long focused on Asia as a fast-growing and prospering market with currently 4.5 billion inhabitants, today’s one billion sub-Saharan Africans have significantly outpaced Asia in terms of population growth (2.6% vs. 1.1% ...
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21 December 2017 - By Laetitia Bigger
With new modelling from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimating up to 650,000 deaths annually associated with respiratory diseases from seasonal influenza, here I look at the important and on-going role vaccines play in tackling the disease and the innovations helping increase prevention. Influenza, commonly known as ...
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1 December 2017 - By Thomas B. Cueni
This blog was first published on Diplomatic Courrier on 1st December 2017. These humbling, resilient young women are at the epicentre of the continuing HIV/AIDS crisis in South Africa. They’re strong and they need to be. They provide healthcare, lend helping hands to abandoned victims, raise awareness, help shoulder the ...
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14 November 2017 - By Thomas B. Cueni
This blog was first published on Life Science Leader and Pharma Times on 14 November 2017. Stand and deliver - practical steps to stop antibiotic resistance It is rapidly becoming the world’s biggest killer. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is on course to overtake cancer (8.2 million annual deaths) and account for ...
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26 October 2017 - By Laetitia Bigger
Last week, in Geneva, the global immunization community gathered at the World Health Organisation’s Headquarters to review progress on the Global Vaccine Action Plan (GVAP). During the presentations, part of the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts of Immunisation (SAGE) meeting, it become clear how vital partnership and collaboration will be ...
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26 October 2017 - By Thomas B. Cueni
In my home country, Swiss citizens do not take kindly to the state trying to nudge them towards a healthier lifestyle. Be it smoking, alcohol, sugar in food or a lower level of salt consumption, they are quick to rant about the Taliban at the Federal Office of Public Health. ...
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10 October 2017 - By Thomas B. Cueni
This blog was first published on Devex on 10 October 2017 Almost 20 years ago, in 1998, 39 leading pharmaceutical companies sued the South African government to stop legislation on parallel imports and generic substitution. It was one of the dumbest things the industry ever did. What started as a ...
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5 October 2017 - By Thomas B. Cueni
The headlines were about North Korea, warmongering, sanctions and, well, diplomacy. But this year’s UN General Assembly in New York in truth devoted far more time to sustainable development, climate change, mass migration and poverty – and how to provide universal  health care (UHC), including for the 400 million who ...
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19 September 2017 - By Thomas Cueni & Paola Barbarino
September is World Alzheimer’s Month, an international campaign to challenge the stigma that surrounds dementia, a disease that affects almost 150,000 people in Switzerland. It is the third most frequent cause of death in the country, costing over CHF 7 billion a year – and as many as 400,000 predominantly ...
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18 September 2017 - By Thomas B. Cueni
I have not forgotten the Chinese taxi driver who wanted to sell me a Rolex for $100 in Singapore a while back. Nor have I forgotten his absolute fury when I laughed and told him that if I wanted to buy a fake Rolex, I could have done it in ...
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29 August 2017 - By Thomas B. Cueni
Fair pricing activists applauded the news earlier this month that the FDA approved another drug to cure hepatitis C. That this new medicine is cheaper and treats people quicker than the existing hepatitis C drugs goes to show how fast healthy competition can change the outlook on health spending. Not long ago, ...
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