Special Issues

In the first of this three part series special on the critical challenges to science, health and human rights in the US under the Trump administration, we explore the cascading effects of the closing down of major government projects

The major flexibilities in the Indian Patent Act - Section 3(d) and the compulsory licensing system - to make medicines affordable, have been under-implemented. As prices of medicines have skyrocketed, secondary patenting has proliferated while compulsory licensing has been invoked only once

Two recent interim orders of the Supreme Court to stay High Court decisions which enabled access to treatment for rare diseases are not only morally and ethically concerning but also block the treatment of people living with rare diseases

Strengthening quality assurance at the time of approval of medicines at the State level and endorsing a pro-public health patent system will be crucial to sustain India’s ability to supply quality, affordable medicines worldwide

Contrary to the Bhore Committee’s vision of an egalitarian and humane healthcare framework, India has systematically stifled public healthcare, endorsing in its stead an essentially unregulated private sector, straying further from the goal of effectuating the constitutional right to health

Over a hundred and forty years since discovering the Mycobacterium tuberculosis, we have not yet eradicated the disease. As we continue to embrace a “wasteful, inefficient” treatment method and now face serious cuts to TB research expenditures by the United States, a renewed commitment to a community-driven, people-centred, response is crucial.

The Trump administration’s decision to withdraw from the WHO weakens the international system of global health cooperation and undermines global pandemic preparedness. But it is also an opportunity to innovate a new paradigm of global health governance - of increased regional collaborations and critical reforms in the WHO

The hard-fought spirit of community mobilisation which informed a successful global fight against the HIV pandemic has been vastly undone by the twisted COVID response engineered by developed nations and Big Pharma