Access to healthcare is making controversial headlines these days as the report of the High-Level Panel on Access to Medicines set up by the Secretary-General of the United Nations was just released. We need to move away from ideological disputes about intellectual property and focus on how we can help patients receive the treatments they need now.

Any solution to the access challenge needs to consider the complex factors that affect access in developing countries. It would indeed be misleading and counter-productive to focus the access debate on patents. (...)

• National Malaria Control Program best practice sharing workshop takes place in Senegal, which has made great strides in malaria control
   
• Event brings together delegates from 33 African countries to accelerate malaria elimination efforts
   
• Novartis Malaria Initiative celebrates treatment delivery milestone, with more than 800 million treatments distributed since 2001, including over 300 million dispersible pediatric treatments

Novartis expands partnership with Medicines for Malaria Venture to develop next-generation antimalarial treatment 

• Novartis will lead the development of antimalarial compound KAF156 with scientific and financial support from Medicines for Malaria Venture in collaboration with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

• KAF156 belongs to a novel class of antimalarials that act against both the blood and liver stages of the parasite’s lifecycle

• Antimalarials with new mechanisms of action are urgently needed to tackle emerging parasite resistance to current therapies

While the headlines might focus on Ebola or yellow fever, Africa is slowly winning the fight against infectious diseases. They will remain a challenge for decades to come, but the real threat of the future is expected to come from elsewhere: non-communicable diseases (NCDs) like diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer.