Global Health Impact: Extending Access to Essential Medicines

Every year nine million people are diagnosed with tuberculosis, every day over 13,400 people are infected with AIDs, and every thirty seconds malaria kills a child. For most of the world, critical medications that treat these deadly diseases are scarce, costly, and growing obsolete, as access to first-line drugs remains out of reach and resistance rates rise. Rather than focusing research and development on creating affordable medicines for these deadly global diseases, pharmaceutical companies instead invest in commercially lucrative products for more affluent customers. Nicole Hassoun argues that everyone has a human right to health and to access to essential medicines, and she proposes the global health impact system as a means to guarantee those rights.

Human rights and access to essential medicines -- The human right to health and the virtue of creative resolve -- Promoting global health : the case for a Global Health Impact labelling and licensing -- Individual responsibility for promoting global health : the case for a new kind of socially conscious consumption -- Consumption and social change : the case of Global Health Impact certification -- Beyond experimental political philosophy : evaluating Global Health Impact certification -- Conclusion: Beyond Global Health Impact labelling, licensing, and investment : advancing public health.