April Global News

April Global News

• The Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi; Geneva, Switzerland) received €5 million from Spain's Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional, based in Madrid, to aid in the research and development of new, effective, and affordable drugs for neglected diseases, including Chagas disease, human African trypanosomiasis, and malaria. DNDi plans to develop two new malaria drugs by the end of the year and is looking to create between six and eight new drugs for neglected diseases by 2014.

• Thailand's Public Health Minister Chaiya Sasomsap announced that Siriwat Thiptharadon, head of Thailand's Food and Drug Administration, was removed from his position and moved instead to an inactive post. Thiptharadon is known for establishing the former government's compulsory license program, which aimed to make drugs more affordable and is now vulnerable to a committee review under Sasomsap's orders. Chatree Banchuen was named secretary general of Thailand's FDA following Thiptharadon's departure, but resigned a week later citing that he was "uncomfortable with the politics."

• Kampala, Uganda's Mulago Hospital, a 1500-bed facility affiliated with Makerere University, is the home of the first Health Volunteers Overseas (HVO; Washington, DC) hematology training program, created by HVO and the American Society of Hematology (Washington, DC). The program's purpose is to bolster the hematology training of clinicians, lab technicians, technologists, and students.

• The University of Portsmouth (Hampshire, UK) is collaborating with brain tumor charity Brainstrust (Hampshire, UK) among others to create the UK's first dedicated laboratory-based brain tumor research center. Brain tumors are the most common form of cancer in people under 40 and the most common cause of death in children after accidents.