The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced today that they will commit $10 billion over the next 10 years to help research, develop and deliver vaccines for the world’s poorest countries.  The Foundation estimates that increased vaccination could save more than 8 million children by 2020.

“We must make this the decade of vaccines,” said Bill Gates. “Vaccines already save and improve millions of lives in developing countries. Innovation will make it possible to save more children than ever before.”

Presentation by Dr. Fiona Adshead (Director, Chronic Diseases and Health Promotion, WHO) at the International Alliance of Patient Organization's Patient Workshop: working effectively with the WHO.  This workshop, organized by World Health Advocacy, was held on May 18, 2009 in Geneva, Switzerland prior to the 2009 World Health Assembly.

The Journal of Globalization and Health recently published an interesting article entitled “Benefits of global partnerships to facilitate access to medicines:  a multi-country analysis of patients and patient outcomes in GIPAP.” The article concludes that The Glivec International Assistance Program (GIPAP) has a significant positive effect on patient access to important medicines for a life threatening condition such as Chronic Myeloid Leukemia.

It is encouraging that multinational pharmaceutical companies are continuing to invest significantly in research into neglected diseases.