In the field, MSF doctors are constantly frustrated by the lack of adequate medical tools to give quality care to the patients we treat. In response, Médecins Sans Frontières set up the MSF Access Campaign in 1999 to improve access to existing medical tools (medicines, diagnostics, vaccines) and to stimulate the development of urgently needed better tools for people in countries where MSF works.

From the start we faced two major challenges – the high cost of existing medicines and the absence of treatments for many of the diseases affecting our patients. Our response has been on the one hand to challenge the high costs of existing drugs or outdated treatment policies. On the other hand we have worked to stimulate research into new medicines for neglected diseases such as tuberculosis, sleeping sickness and malaria.