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In: Actions, Negotiations

Today, UACT submitted letters to the CEOs of three major pharmaceutical companies currently developing chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR T) technologies.  UACT asked the leaders of Novartis, Gilead Sciences, and Juno Therapeutics to address questions regarding research and development (R&D) costs, federal-funding received, potential public health impact, and ensuring equitable and affordable access to CAR T treatments in the US and around the world. The first CAR T treatment was approved by the FDA yesterday, a treatment for leukemia in children and young adults produced by Novartis, and was quickly announced to carry a $475,000 price tag. As this new area of cancer-treating technologies emerges,Read More →

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In: Negotiations

Time for cancer patients to come before corporate profits by Manon Ress, co founder and acting director of UACT First posted by MOHGA KAMAL-YANNI ON JUN 15TH, 2017 IN ACCESS TO MEDICINES, INEQUALITY, NON COMMUNICABLE DISEASES, UNIVERSAL HEALTH COVERAGE http://www.globalhealthcheck.org/?p=1973 On 26th Of May, the World Health Assembly adopted the long debated Resolution on Cancer Prevention and Control. This is an important step towards supporting countries to address this disease in order to achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC). Cancers are a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide, with approximately 14 million new cases and 8.2 million cancer-related deaths in 2012, 70% of which occurredRead More →

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In: Negotiations

On May 31, 2017, World Health Assembly adopted a new resolution on the prevention and control of cancer.   UACT earlier wrote about the negotiations on the resolution here and here.  IP-Watch published a story about the resolution here.  A not quite final version of the text is here. The following are statements from four members of UACT:   Dr. Manon Ress, Founder and Acting Director, Union for Affordable Cancer Treatment (UACT) UACT was among 29 civil society organizations and 33 health professionals, activists, and economists — including Nobel Prize laureate Joseph Stiglitz — asking delegates to WHA to support a feasibility study on theRead More →

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In: Meetings, Negotiations, Presentations

On Wednesday, 24 May 2017, UACT participated in Knowledge Ecology International (KEI), Oxfam and Stichting Health Action International (HAI) WHA side event on addressing access barriers and affordability challenges for cancer medicines. This event focused on policy options to address the access barriers and affordability challenges for cancer medicines, in conjunction with the Assembly’s consideration of agenda item 15.6 – Cancer prevention and control in the context of an integrated approach. In 2012, cancer was the 2nd leading cause of death in the world (8.2 million); cancer cases are projected to increase from 14.1 million in 2012 to 21.6 million in 2030. Panelists will addressRead More →

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In: Negotiations

Today the negotiators closed out all of the brackets on the proposed resolution on cancer for the 70th World Health Assembly (WHA).   The last paragraph to be resolved was the one that UACT followed closely.   In earlier versions of the text, the paragraph called for transparency of prices and R&D costs, access gaps, and a feasibility study of delinkage.  In the final version, all of this was watered down, due to drug company lobbying, but there remains sufficient mandate for the WHO to do quite a bit, depending upon the views of the new WHO DG, who will be elected on Tuesday.  SpecificRead More →