Editing Médecins Sans Frontières (section)

===Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines===
{{Main|Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines}}

The Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines was initiated in 1999 to increase access to [[essential medicines]] in developing countries. "Essential medicines" are those drugs that are needed in sufficient supply to treat a disease common to a population.<ref>{{cite web |work=WHO |url=http://www.who.int/topics/essential_medicines/en/ |title=Essential Medicines |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040823015540/http://www.who.int/topics/essential_medicines/en/ |archive-date=23 August 2004 }}</ref> However, most diseases common to populations in developing countries are no longer common to populations in developed countries; therefore, [[pharmaceutical company|pharmaceutical companies]] find that producing these drugs is no longer profitable and may raise the price per treatment, decrease development of the drug (and new treatments) or even stop production of the drug. MSF often lacks effective drugs during field missions, and started the campaign to put pressure on governments and pharmaceutical companies to increase funding for essential medicines.

In 2006, MSF tried to use its influence to urge the drug maker [[Novartis]] to drop its case against India's patent law that prevents Novartis from patenting its drugs in [[India]]. A few years earlier, Novartis also sued [[South Africa]] to prevent it from importing cheaper [[AIDS]] drugs.<ref>{{cite press release |url=http://web1.doctorswithoutborders.org/press/release.cfm?id=1908&cat=press-release |title=MSF Urges Novartis to Drop Case Against Indian Government |work=Doctors Without Borders |date=20 December 2006 |access-date=3 October 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120404055800/http://web1.doctorswithoutborders.org/press/release.cfm?id=1908&cat=press-release |archive-date=4 April 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref> On 1 April 2013, it was announced that the Indian court invalidated Novartis's patent on [[imatinib]] (Gleevec). This decision makes the drug available via generics on the Indian market at a considerably lower price.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-india-novartis-patent-idUSBRE93002I20130401 |work=[[Reuters]]|access-date=1 April 2013 |title=Novartis loses landmark India cancer drug patent case |date=1 April 2013 |archive-date=1 April 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130401104520/http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/01/us-india-novartis-patent-idUSBRE93002I20130401 |url-status=live }}</ref>

In March 2017, [[Els Torreele]] who had been leading the campaign from 1999 to 2003 returned to MSF as the executive director of the Access Campaign. For the following three years she led a global analysis and advocacy team whose goal was to guarantee that appropriate medicines, vaccines and diagnostics are developed, available, affordable and adapted to people's needs.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2020-10-20 |title=Els Torreele |url=https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/public-purpose/people/els-torreele |access-date=2022-01-13 |website=UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose}}</ref>

As of 2022, the most critical subjects of the campaign were rising antimicrobial resistance and outbreaks of epidemic diseases such as Ebola and COVID. Still, a lot of vaccines, diagnostics and medicines were inaccessible for people in need.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Our Wishlist for 2022|url=https://msfaccess.org/wishlist2022|access-date=2022-01-13|website=Médecins Sans Frontières Access Campaign|date=January 2022}}</ref>