September 28, 2026: Over 70 civil society organisations from Malaysia, the European Union and around the world have signed a letter calling on the EU to remove intellectual property provisions from the proposed Malaysia-EU Free Trade Agreement (MEUFTA) that go beyond the requirements of the World Trade Organisation’s Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). 

August 31, 2026: A new article written by Adjunct Professor and former ambassador Anna George and published by the Australian Institute of International Affairs highlights the critical challenge of ensuring the Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing (PABS) Annex in the WHO’s Pandemic Preparedness Agreement delivers genuine equity.

August 4, 2026: A new Public Citizen analysis finds that pathogen-sharing agreements signed by the Trump administration with African states would weaken a central principle of the emerging global pandemic response framework; that countries contributing vital virus samples and information should share in the benefits.

July 28, 2026: Latrobe University Professor Deborah Gleeson explained in an interview with ABC TV news show The World what is behind the US Trump administration and Pharma companies’ attacks on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme and why the government should resist them.

See the full interview here.

July 23, 2026: US President Trump has announced on social media, but not as an official US trade policy, that the US would impose 100-200% tariffs on generic medicines from July 2028, unless generic producers relocate their production to the US. Generic medicines become available at much lower prices after the 20-year patent monopolies on new medicines have expired. They were exempted from Trump’s previous tariffs on more expensive patented medicines. 

July 17, 2026: AFTINET convener Dr Patricia Ranald explains in a Guardian interview how the US government and pharmaceutical companies are pressuring Australia and other countries to raise wholesale medicine prices. This would undermine the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme which provides medicines at affordable prices. Modernising the scheme should not undermine its basic purpose and structure.

July 6, 2026: AFTINET has joined with Médecins sans Frontières Australia, Public Health Association of Australia and Uniting Church in Australia Synod of Victoria and Tasmania in writing a letter to Health and Aged Care Minister Mark Butler. They are calling on the government to supporting developing countries in their push for enforceable equitable access to vaccines and other pandemic-related products in the World Health Organisation (WHO) Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing (PABS) Annex negotiations.

July 3, 2026: AFTINET and the Public Health Association of Australia (PHAA) have written to Australian Health and Aged Care Minister Mark Butler urging the Federal Government to resist growing pressure from the US’ Trump Administration and the pharmaceutical industry to increase medicine wholesale prices in Australia. It warns that conceding to such pressure would weaken the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS), which relies on government negotiation of wholesale prices to secure affordable access to medicines based on clinical value and cost-effectiveness.

May 25, 2026: The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda has again exposed the fragile global access to vaccines and treatments, as health systems struggle to contain a fast-moving epidemic caused by the rare Bundibugyo strain. With no licensed vaccine or treatment, response efforts have been limited to surveillance, isolation, and basic infection control.