Medicines Shouldn't Be A Luxury - Médecins Sans Frontières

What if the medicines that could save your life cost a hundred times what you earn in a year?  Many people in developing countries can’t get hold of the treatment they need to stay alive and healthy.  That’s why Médecins Sans Frontières launched the MSF Access Campaign in 1999 to find ways of ensuring that medicines could be made available for all our patients and others in developing countries.  Our mission is to increase access to – and the development of – affordable, practical and effective drugs, vaccines and diagnostic tests for diseases that affect people in places where we work.

We are a multi-disciplinary team that includes doctors, pharmacists, scientists, lawyers, as well as advocacy and communications experts. We also work with patient groups and other civil society organisations in response to their concerns over access to treatment.
"Some of the reasons that people die from diseases like AIDS, TB, sleeping sickness and other tropical diseases are that life-saving, essential medicines are either too expensive, are not available because they are not seen as financially viable, or because there is virtually no new research and development for priority tropical diseases. What we as a civil society movement demand is change, not charity."-- Dr James Orbinski, President of MSF’s International Council, accepting the Nobel Peace Prize in 1999...