Latha Jishnu: From airline tickets to patent pools
PATENTLY ABSURD Latha Jishnu / New Delhi July 23, 2008, 0:26 IST Some extraordinary initiatives have been launched in recent times to ensure that the poorest of the world have access to medicines to fight pandemics and life-threatening diseases. One such is UNITAID, an international drug purchase facility that brings together 27 countries to help fight three killer diseases: HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. The project was started by France, Brazil, Chile, Norway and the UK and its members are mostly African countries which are the worst victims of these afflictions.