POLITICO: FDA ends emergency use of hydroxychloroquine for coronavirus “The Food and Drug Administration on Monday withdrew emergency use authorizations for two coronavirus treatments that President Donald Trump promoted despite concerns about their safety and effectiveness. The agency revoked the authorizations for hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine after a request from Gary…

Devex: Gilead’s closed-door deal sets precedent for COVID-19 drug access “Amid global conversations to ensure equitable access to future drugs and vaccines for COVID-19, Gilead Sciences, Inc. made its own side room deal. Over the past month, the U.S.-based company made an agreement with generic pharmaceutical companies in Egypt, India,…

AFRICA The Guardian: Why coronavirus has placed millions more girls at risk of FGM (Hodal, 6/16). New York Times: Coronavirus Accelerates Across Africa (Maclean, 5/16). Reuters: Nigerian doctors strike for better benefits during coronavirus crisis (Sotunde et al., 6/15). Scientific American: African Countries Scramble to Ramp up Testing for COVID-19…

VOA: WHO Expects to Quickly Tackle DR Congo’s New Ebola Outbreak “The World Health Organization says lessons learned from previous outbreaks of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo and effective therapeutics will allow it to more quickly contain a new outbreak of the deadly disease in Équateur Province. U.N.…

New York Times: The Pandemic Claims New Victims: Prestigious Medical Journals “One study promised that popular blood-pressure drugs were safe for people infected with the coronavirus. Another paper warned that anti-malaria drugs endorsed by President Trump actually were dangerous to these patients. The studies, published in the New England Journal…

Devex: CEPI CEO: Scarcity, ‘vaccine nationalism’ biggest barriers for COVID-19 vaccine access “Global politics and vaccine scarcity are the biggest challenges to ensuring that a future COVID-19 vaccine will be available in the world’s poorest countries, according to Richard Hatchett, CEO at the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations. ‘Managing the…

Financial Times: E.U. to spend billions to secure coronavirus vaccine “Brussels plans to pump billions of euros into advance purchase deals with pharmaceutical companies for potential coronavirus vaccines, in a sign of intensifying rich country efforts to secure supplies of any future treatment. The E.U. proposes using a ‘large majority’…

AFRICA AP: Congo doctor quits COVID-19 task force, notes testing delays (Maliro/Larson, 6/11). National Geographic: Why South Africa’s coronavirus outbreak could be a ‘catalyst for transformation’ (Nordling, 6/11). New Humanitarian: Child marriage worries rise amid coronavirus lockdown in Cameroon (Fonyuy, 6/11). NPR: Risks Of Home Birth Loom For Women in…

WIRED: The Dangers of Excluding Women From HIV Prevention Drug Tests “…The underrepresentation of women in all kinds of medical research — from heart disease to sexual dysfunction — is a longstanding concern among women’s health activists. With HIV, inequity not only leaves women vulnerable to a life-altering disease, but…

Undark: As Uganda Takes Control of the HIV Epidemic, U.S. Shifts Funding “…In July 2018, the U.S. global AIDS coordinator Deborah Birx — now of course better known in her latest role as coordinator of the White House’s response to the novel coronavirus pandemic — issued a directive for all…