CIAO DATE: 11/2009
October 2009
Access to medicines is a major challenge for people in developing countries. With the right medicines, diseases such as HIV and AIDS, tuberculosis (TB), and malaria are treatable. Yet for millions of poor people, affordable medicines remain out of reach. UNITAID was established in 2006 as a new public health financing mechanism and a South–North collaboration. It is partially funded through an innovative airline tax that ensures stable long-term financing. UNITAID uses this unique feature to intervene in the market to make medicines for HIV, TB, and malaria affordable and available to people in low- and middle-income countries.
Resource link: Civil Society and UNITAID: An introduction [PDF] - 384K