Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines (Paperback)

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. The Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines is an international campaign started by M decins Sans Fronti res (MSF) to increase the availability of essential medicines in developing countries. MSF often has difficulties treating patients because the medicines required are too expensive or are no longer produced. Sometimes, the only drugs available are highly toxic or ineffective, and they often have to resort to inadequate testing methods to diagnose patients. The lack of research into diseases that affect most of the world's poor population is known as the 10-90 gap and it occurs because pharmaceutical companies rarely make a profit when developing drugs for these diseases. Although some countries have created legislation to encourage development of essential medicines, which are called orphan drugs in the United States, MSF started this campaign in November 1999 to bring more awareness to the issue, using its prize money from its 1999 Nobel Peace Prize to fund the project.