The Differential Effect of a Shortage of Thyroid Hormone Compared with Knockout of Thyroid Hormone Transporters Mct8 and Mct10 on Murine Macrophage Polarization.

Innate immune cells, including macrophages, are functionally affected by thyroid hormone (TH). Macrophages can undergo phenotypical alterations, shifting between proinflammatory (M1) and immunomodulatory (M2) profiles. Cellular TH concentrations are, among others, determined by TH transporters.

A global investment framework for the elimination of hepatitis B.

Background & Aims: More than 292 million people are living with hepatitis B worldwide and are at risk of death from cirrhosis and liver cancer. The World Health Organization (WHO) has set global targets for the elimination of viral hepatitis as a public health threat by 2030. However, current levels of global investment in viral hepatitis elimination programmes are insufficient to achieve these goals.

[Orphan drugs and drug pirates].

The European Orphan Medicines Regulation, which came into effect in 2000, stimulates the development of medicines for rare diseases. The number of registered orphan medicines has increased from eight in 2000 to 169 in 2019; 38% of these are available in the Netherlands. The costs for orphan medicines in the Netherlands are increasing by 9% every year, and now amount to €272 million annually.

Global hepatitis C elimination: an investment framework.

WHO has set global targets for the elimination of hepatitis B and hepatitis C as a public health threat by 2030. However, investment in elimination programmes remains low. To help drive political commitment and catalyse domestic and international financing, we have developed a global investment framework for the elimination of hepatitis B and hepatitis C.

Innovative strategies for the elimination of viral hepatitis at a national level: A country case series.

Viral hepatitis is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide, but has long been neglected by national and international policymakers. Recent modelling studies suggest that investing in the global elimination of viral hepatitis is feasible and cost-effective. In 2016, all 194 member states of the World Health Organization endorsed the goal to eliminate viral hepatitis as a public health threat by 2030, but complex systemic and social realities hamper implementation efforts.

Does the political will exist to bring quality-assured and affordable drugs to low- and middle-income countries?

Background: Increased coverage with antiretroviral therapy for people living with HIV in low- and middle-income countries has increased their life expectancy associated with non-HIV comorbidities and the need for quality-assured and affordable non-communicable diseases drugs . Funders are leaving many middle-income countries that will have to pay and provide quality-assured and affordable HIV and non-HIV drugs, including for non-communicable diseases.

Objective: To estimate costs for originator and generic antiretroviral therapy as the number of people living with HIV are projected to increase between 2016 and 2026, and discuss country, regional and global factors associated with increased access to generic drugs.

Patent challenges in the procurement and supply of generic new essential medicines and lessons from HIV in the southern African development community (SADC) region.

High medicines prices increasingly pose challenges for universal access to treatments of communicable and non-communicable diseases. New essential medicines are often patent-protected which sustains high prices in many countries, including in low- and middle-income countries. To respond to the HIV/AIDS crisis of the late nineties and to increase access to antiretroviral treatment, certain flexibilities contained in the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS flexibilities) have been clarified and in some respects strengthened at the global level.

Pathways to ensure universal and affordable access to hepatitis C treatment.

Direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) have dramatically changed the landscape of hepatitis C treatment and prevention. The World Health Organization has called for the elimination of hepatitis C as a public health threat by 2030. However, the discrepancy in DAA prices across low-, middle- and high-income countries is considerable, ranging from less than US$ 100 to approximately US$ 40,000 per course, thus representing a major barrier for the scale-up of treatment and elimination.

Abundantly Present miRNAs in Milk-Derived Extracellular Vesicles Are Conserved Between Mammals.

Mammalian milk is not only a source of nutrition for the newborn, but also contains various components that regulate further development. For instance, milk is an abundant source of microRNAs (miRNAs), which are evolutionary conserved small non-coding RNAs that are involved in post-transcriptional regulation of target mRNA. MiRNAs present in milk can occur in extracellular vesicles (EVs), which are nanosized membrane vesicles released by many cell types as a means of intercellular communication.

Medicine procurement and the use of flexibilities in the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, 2001-2016.

Millions of people, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, lack access to effective pharmaceuticals, often because they are unaffordable. The 2001 Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO) adopted the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) Agreement and Public Health. The declaration recognized the implications of intellectual property rights for both new medicine development and the price of medicines.

A novel community driven software for functional enrichment analysis of extracellular vesicles data.

Bioinformatics tools are imperative for the in depth analysis of heterogeneous high-throughput data. Most of the software tools are developed by specific laboratories or groups or companies wherein they are designed to perform the required analysis for the group. However, such software tools may fail to capture "what the community needs in a tool".

Data exclusivity exceptions and compulsory licensing to promote generic medicines in the European Union: .

The challenge of providing access to high-priced patented medicines is a global problem affecting all countries. A decade and a half ago the use of flexibilities contained in the World Trade Organization Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, in particular compulsory licensing, was seen as a mechanism to respond to high-price medicines for the treatment of HIV/AIDS in low- and middle-income countries. Today a number of upper-income European Union (EU) Member States are contemplating the use of compulsory licensing in their efforts to reduce expenditure on pharmaceutical products.

Viewpoint: Counterfeit medicines and substandard medicines: Different problems requiring different solutions.

New interest in the 'pandemic' of falsified medicines has resulted in efforts to put in place a treaty on 'medicines crime'. If the goal is to protect the interests of people and public health, an international agreement to ensure that all proven effective and necessary medicines are affordable, available, and of assured quality will do far more to combat falsified and substandard medicines than an agreement that deals primarily with the criminal aspects of problematic medicines production and distribution.