Cataclysmic: The Proposed Dismantling of the MSF Access Campaign Strikes At the Heart of Influential Activism, Political-Legal Battles in Global Health At Stake

Newsletter Edition #221 [The Files In-Depth]

Hi,

There is a fire out there, and firefighters have been put on leave. This is what occurred to me while working on this edition.

Today’s story is not about kitchen sink politics in one of the world’s most powerful, influential and effective Global Health and Humanitarian NGOs. It has the potential to have some real consequences for patient communities all over the world, including in the most vulnerable settings.

It is hard to overstate the importance of this development, where MSF’s Access Campaign is expected to be pruned to such an extent that will impact dynamics in Free Trade Agreements, the Pandemic Treaty negotiations, and the fight against some of the most stubborn diseases of the world including HIV and diabetes.

We hope you find this rather long analysis useful.

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Until later.

Best,

Priti

Feel free to write to us: patnaik.reporting@gmail.com. Follow us on X: @filesgeneva

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Illustration Credit: Amy Clarke, Chembe Collaborative

I. ANALYSIS

Cataclysmic: The Proposed Dismantling of the Médecins Sans Frontières Access Campaign Strikes At the Heart of Influential Activism, Political-Legal Battles in Global Health At Stake

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In recent days, access to medicines activists in many parts of the world are grappling with developments that have struck at the heart of the movement.

Médecins Sans Frontières, arguably one of the most powerful, influential and well-funded activist organization in the space, has proposed a restructuring its well-regarded and highly admired Access Campaign that currently works all over the world in the most political and challenging settings and one that consistently led and expanded the access to medical products for a range of diseases. MSF has programmes in more than 75 countries across the world.

From ensuring treatments, to challenging patents, from fighting for lower prices of drugs, to working with governments silently to improve health outcomes, the Access Campaign has been at the frontier of not only taking on the might of the pharmaceutical industry, but also making states more accountable.

After 25 years of path-breaking work including contributing to the creation of the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi), this crucial work of the Access Campaign is now under challenge from its own organization, that seeks to radically downsize existing staff, essentially pulling the plug off sensitive work on multiple fronts that the Access Campaign is deeply involved with, internal sources say.

For this story we spoke to a range of employees including at MSF, and former staffers. We also spoke with others outside the organization who have worked with the Access Campaign over decades and attest to the importance of the team.

It is clear that what is at stake is much more than people losing jobs at a Civil Society Organization, a team that is known for sinking its teeth in the toughest battles in global health, not only during the COVID-19 pandemic, including pushing for the TRIPS Waiver at the WTO, and but in years after across diseases and geographical regions. Disruption in the work of the Access Campaign has implications for millions of people around the world, whose interests and in fact, lives have been safeguarded by its work for over two decades.

So strong has been the influence of this multi-disciplinary team of lawyers, doctors, pharmacists, logisticians, lab technicians and others, that letters from activists, scholars from all over the world have been flying thick and fast in the past few days, fervently urging MSF leadership to reverse decision on the Access Campaign. At this point, we are not aware whether this would have any impact on reversing this move.

This week in Geneva, MSF bosses meet for an International General Assembly. Sources say the matter of the Access Campaign could likely come up at the meeting.  

Image Credit: Photo by Dr. Mia Stein, Pexels