Roz Scourse

Gilead Imposes Price Secrecy on Global Fund Over Breakthrough HIV Prevention Shot, Blocking Transparency and Accountability PRESS STATEMENTFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 9 2025Contact for more information: Asia Russell | +1 267 475 2645 asia@healthgap.org Susana van der Ploeg | +55 32 9921-7496 susanaploeg@abiaids.org.brGilea...

Q: Why should one of the wealthiest drug companies in the world be allowed to keep the price it’s charging a major global health institution for a lifesaving HIV prevention shot that’s about 100% effective, a secret? healthgap.org/press/gilead...

A: they shouldn’t

🔹 Clinical trial transparency

Clinical trials are the most costly part of developing medicines, yet cost is not disclosed by companies. Transparency here is essential to fair pricing and ensuring the public return.
(See the excellent Transparency CORE toolkit by MSF) @rozscourse.bsky.social /7

💬 What if national pharmaceutical policy could help fix global asymmetries in medicine access—by design?
🧵 A thread on translating international commitments into meaningful national reform: /1

#GlobalHealth #HealthPolicy 🛟 💊🌐

Grim how we are discussing relative catastrophic cuts to health - and the cuts are catastrophic - but in absolute terms, health spending was already unacceptably low.

WHO's budget shortfall = 8 hours of military spending.

From Tedros's speech to the WHA this week:

www.who.int/news-room/sp...

#WHA78 @rozscourse.bsky.social

KEI side event: Workplan for WHO and member states to improve the Transparency of the Value Chain for Biomedical Products - 22 May 2025 - Thank you to all our speakers and participants! #WHA78 @who.int

This meeting was the launch event for the great new @wemos.org @hai-org.bsky.social report on the implementation of the WHA transparency resolution - super helpful to see some progress and initiatives since 2019 but also how much more needs to be done:

www.wemos.org/wp-content/u...

@jamielove.bsky.social simply said: “fix this problem”

One of the most powerful panel discussions I have seen in a long time; deep anger and outrage that parents are watching their children dying from rare diseases when treatments exist that could save their lives.

@justtreatment.org @3rdworldnetwork.bsky.social

Now @dbdurisch.bsky.social @publiceye.ch showing how *2 days* after the @who.int transparency resolution was adopted in 2019, industry in Switzerland started a process to increase secrecy of drug prices - price transparency has got worse since then, not better

He argues for the need for standardization in *how* R&D costs are reported so this can be demanded from industry as part of health technology assessment

At the @wemos.org @hai-org.bsky.social #WHA78 side event on transparency where the Spanish Minister of Health highlights Pharma industry hypocrisy in saying they don’t know what their R&D costs are when this is the backbone of their justification for high prices

He argues for the need for standardization in *how* R&D costs are reported so this can be demanded from industry as part of health technology assessment

US funding cuts threaten 39 research sites in South Africa, putting scientific advancements and hard-won progress against TB and HIV at risk TAG and MSF urge donors to act now to protect ongoing research and ensure continuity of care for people with HIV and TB

⚠️ South Africa: Lifesaving scientific research on prevention, testing, treatment and care for people living with #HIV and #tuberculosis is under serious threat due to funding suspensions and grant terminations U.S. government.

msfaccess.org/us-funding-c...

Gleaming labs turned to rubble: scientists mourn the loss of decades of medical progress in Sudan Universities and laboratories in Khartoum are looted or in ruins, with vital research and medicines destroyed, including pioneering work on tropical diseases

Incredibly sad news that the only Mycetoma research center in the world was destroyed in Khartoum. Scientists lost 40+ years of samples, a significant setback in the fight against an already neglected disease.

www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

Call for transparency: detailed cost analysis of MSF’s TB-PRACTECAL clinical trial in PLOS Global Public Health MSF published the costs of its landmark TB-PRACTECAL clinical trial in the journal PLOS Global Public Health that cost a total of €33.9 million.

Access to TB drug bedaquiline was delayed for over a decade due to its high price. It was the public disclosure of significant public and non-profit investments in its development that supported a global movement leading to a price reduction of this lifesaving drug. msfaccess.org/call-transpa...

Cost analysis of the TB-PRACTECAL clinical trial on novel tuberculosis treatment regimens Clinical trials are considered to be the largest contributor to pharmaceutical development costs. However, public disclosure of the costs of individual clinical trials is rare. Médecins Sans Frontiè...

What did it cost for @msf.org to run a large TB clinical trial?

€33.9 million

Well done MSF for this transparent analysis!

journals.plos.org/globalpublic...

Transparency CORE: Clinical Trial Cost Reporting Toolkit A toolkit to facilitate the analysis and publication of clinical trial costs

This work continues with plans to publish more of MSF's clinical trial costs - as well as publication of trial costs by others who are starting to use the toolkit we developed as part of this work: msfaccess.org/transparency...

Despite claims by industry that publishing R&D costs cannot be done, MSF is showing by doing that transparency in R&D spending can and must be done; it is critical to determine fair prices of medical products, equitable access, and public accountability.

Call for transparency: detailed cost analysis of MSF’s TB-PRACTECAL clinical trial in PLOS Global Public Health MSF published the costs of its landmark TB-PRACTECAL clinical trial in the journal PLOS Global Public Health that cost a total of €33.9 million.

MSF has led some groundbreaking clinical trials, including TB-PRACTECAL. Recognising the lack of transparency in R&D costs, MSF took the unprecedented step to commit to publishing the costs of the clinical trials that we are involved in; TB-PRACTECAL cost €33.9 million: msfaccess.org/call-transpa...

Secrets Cost Lives: Transparency and Access to Medical Products Progress towards equity in access to medical products can only be built on the open sharing of information and knowledge, not on secrets

For decades the access to medicines community has called for more transparency in R&D costs. This is because the pharmaceutical industry continues to justify the high prices of medical products on high costs of R&D. These claims have never been backed up with evidence: msfaccess.org/secrets-cost...

Cost analysis of the TB-PRACTECAL clinical trial on novel tuberculosis treatment regimens Clinical trials are considered to be the largest contributor to pharmaceutical development costs. However, public disclosure of the costs of individual clinical trials is rare. Médecins Sans Frontiè...

Today in PLOS Global Public Health, MSF has published the costs of its landmark TB-PRACTECAL clinical trial. This is the first time the detailed costs of an individual clinical trial have ever been shared, challenging the lack of transparency in drug R&D costs 🧵

journals.plos.org/globalpublic...

Awesome to see Gary @garyseconomics.bsky.social at the wealth tax rally

“I’m not very keen on rally’s. I always leave wondering if we can win. But I’m here cos I think we can win this one”

#TaxTheSuperRich

NEW POLLING:

77% support ⬆️ taxes on the very richest over cuts to public spending

78% support a 2% wealth tax on net wealth over £10m

67% - think the very richest people in the UK should pay more in tax

Tax the rich, don't punish the poor. @oxfamgb.bsky.social

www.oxfam.org.uk/media/press-...

Screenshot of the title of the article and the PLOS Global Public Health logo

New from us @plosglobalpublichealth.org
"Cholera vaccines for the rich, #cholera for the poor: While the global cholera vaccine stockpile runs dry, a booming market for high-income countries exemplifies the chasm between commercial interests and global health needs" journals.plos.org/globalpublic...

At most events on TB or HIV like this one for World TB Day, most speakers talk about their memories of how horrific the 80s and 90s were for these diseases in particular. Now with the massive aid cuts, there is clear fear of going backwards to anything close to those days

Very timely message for the UK government. No country can and should back track from any aid commitments right now! #FundingCutsCostLives

World TB Day 2025: Open letter to the UK Government Cuts to global TB services will have rapid and devastating impacts

The UK must reverse the aid cuts.

The world's most vulnerable should not again face more cuts to vital, life-saving services.

Read the letter here: msf.org.uk/article/worl...

The UK has an opportunity to show its commitment to TB and global health when co-hosting the Global Fund Replenishment later this year.

No host country has ever reduced its pledge from the previous replenishment; we urge the UK to not be the first to do so.

In wasn't long ago that the UK committed to global efforts to end TB by 2030 as part of the TB political declaration. These efforts are already falling massively short of what's needed; this gap will only get much much worse in the face of these cuts