Price of first malaria vaccine to be slashed by more than half
25/6/2025: The price charged by drugmakers Bharat Biotech and GSK for the world’s first malaria vaccine, RTS,S, will be reduced to less than $5 per dose in endemic countries by 2028. In low income countries supported by GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, prices will be cut even further.
Source: Devex
Breakthrough in search for HIV cure leaves researchers ‘overwhelmed’
5/6/2025: A cure for HIV could be a step closer after researchers in Melbourne found a new way to force the virus out of hiding inside human cells. It is based on mRNA technology, which came to prominence during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Source: The Guardian
Trump budget request slashes global health funding
4/6/2025: The Trump administration's 2026 budget request excludes any funding for Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, which provides vaccines to lower-income countries. Similar cuts affect the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and the UN Population Fund.
Source: Devex
Can domestic financing solve the global health funding crisis?
28/5/2025: In the wake of massive cuts to aid, experts are looking to domestic governments to shore up looming gaps in global health financing. But many governments simply do not have the resources or the ability to cover all of the donor funding that is disappearing.
Source: Devex
New pandemic treaty is a landmark, but flawed
23/5/2025: World Health Organization member countries have adopted a new treaty to improve international coordination and cooperation on the response to future pandemics. The agreement has the potential to reduce rising global health inequalities but it still falls far short of addressing the human rights violations that occurred during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Source: Human Rights Warch
Increases in vaccine-preventable disease threaten years of progress
24/4/2025: Outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles, meningitis and yellow fever are rising globally as misinformation, population growth, humanitarian crises and funding cuts jeopardize progress. UN agencies are calling for action to protect the reduction in child mortality achieved over the past 50 years.
Source: World Health Organization
WHO to slash senior leadership and departments
23/4/2025: The World Health Organization has announced that its senior leadership team will be reduced from twelve to seven and the number of departments from 76 to 34. This is the consequence of the US, its biggest donor, withdrawing from the agency.
Source: Devex
Countries finalize historic pandemic agreement
16/4/2025: A multilateral Pandemic Agreement outlines a framework for strengthening international collaboration in the face of future global health threats. The agreed draft will now be submitted for consideration to the 78th World Health Assembly, set to begin in May. The US has withdrawn from the process and would not be bound by the pact.
Source: UN News
Countries are experiencing health system disruptions
10/4/2025: The World Health Organization has warned of health service disruptions in 70% of its surveyed country offices as a result of sudden suspensions and reductions in foreign aid for health. The findings are based on rapid assessment of the fast-evolving situation.
Aid cuts threaten progress in ending maternal mortality
6/4/2025: Unprecedented aid cuts are putting global progress to end maternal deaths at risk, UN agencies have warned. Their report shows that maternal deaths declined by 40 per cent between 2000 and 2023 but that the rate of improvement is slowing. Sub-Saharan Africa still accounted for approximately 70 per cent of the global burden of maternal deaths in 2023 due to high rates of poverty and multiple conflicts.
Source: UN News