Background

About a third of the world’s population, concentrated in poorer regions of the world, may be infected with TB, which generally lies dormant until the carrier’s immunity is impaired by another disease (often HIV infection). Without treatment, about half of the patients with active TB will die. According to WHO...

Help for medicinal innovation in Thailand is coming from an unlikely source.

Too much money is devoted to issues that seem well beyond the scope of a World Health Organization primarily concerned with infectious diseases.

Whenever the Thai government defiesforeign drug patents and creates its own cheap copies of drugs, it endangers the patients who need the drugs and undermines drug discovery.

If Chinese exports raise enough concern, their lack of quality might end up crippling the world economy.

The Thai government is breaking patents on Western drugs, but such actionwill haveconsequences for theThailand,afflicted patients, and global health.

Often failing to fulfill its assigned mandates and unable to implement the initiatives it has begun, the UN's World Health Organization desperately needs to reform.

DDT has been more effective against malaria than any other intervention, but inaction and political hostility may halt its recent renaissance.