Ugandan government ministers have warned that the country is running out of AIDS drugs, blaming the global financial crisis and a successful testing policy. The health ministry says that only 190 000 patients are receiving antiretroviral drugs out of the 357 000 who qualify for them. The health minister, Stephen Malinga, blames the shortages on the global economic crunch; a successful testing regime that has led to a rise in the numbers of people with access to the drugs; and policy changes that have increased the number of people who qualify for the drug.BMJ , vol 339, 15/8/9, p364http://www.bmj.com/cgi/section_pdf/339/aug12_1/b3278.pdf
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) have will work together to ensure that clinical trials related to drug marketing applications in the USA and Europe are conducted “uniformly, appropriately, and ethically.”
The “good clinical practices initiative” is expected to strengthen safeguards for participants in clinical studies. In a joint statement the EMEA and the FDA said that in most cases the same clinical trials are used to support applications to both agencies for approvals of new drugs. Many of the people participating in these clinical trials are recruited in
Europe and the
US. The statement says that US and EU regulators need to ensure that trials in their
BMJ , vol 339, 15/8/9, p362.http://www.bmj.com/cgi/section_pdf/339/aug12_1/b3278.pdf