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French drugmaker Sanofi will make 30 of its treatments, including insulin, available on a not-for-profit basis in 40 lower-income countries in the first step of its plan to increase access to its medicines worldwide. The treatments will be provided under the new Impact brand, part of Sanofi's global health unit launched last year, which sits outside the commercial business. The plan also includes the $25 million Impact fund, which will go towards supporting local start-up healthcare businesses and providing training on using the medicines, Sanofi said. "There's a lot of noise at the moment from different companies jumping into this space… but investing in entrepreneurship, in the ecosystem, is a new thing," said Jon Fairest, who heads the global health unit. The treatments available are on the World Health Organization's essential medicines list, and insulin in particular has been singled out by the UN agency as a life-saving medicine for diabetics that is difficult to access in many lower-income countries, where the burden of disease is growing.

Surrogate motherhood is an option for couples who are unable to have children, whether it be from age, infertility, or some other medical issue. It is also for women who can have children but choose not to have the pregnancy experience. The other option for women to have children is via adoption. Surrogacy can be accomplished by one, of two ways. In most cases, a man's sperm is instilled into the surrogate by a procedure called artificial insemination. If this is done, the surrogate is considered to be the biological and birth mother of the child. Another name for this type of surrogacy is traditional surrogacy. The other way surrogacy may be accomplished is by the man's sperm and woman's eggs being implanted into the surrogate. This process is known as vitro fertilization. In this case, the surrogate is not the biological mother but is still considered the birth mother of the child. This type of surrogacy is gestational surrogacy. Surrogacy has both supporters and opponents, and both parties have strong arguments that work in their favor. All that are against surrogacy feel it is unnecessary and it dismembers a woman's body, especially considering that surrogacy is a profitable transaction. Many build their belief against surrogacy on their religious beliefs, while others base it on political and legal beliefs. Roman Catholics are strongly against surrogacy and feel surrogacy takes away from the sacredness of marriage and the connection between father, mother, and child. They also feel that commercial surrogacy is greatly offensive. In commercial surrogacy, a child's birth is turned into a financial matter. They feel it turns women into reproductive robots and exploitation of children. Other groups that oppose to surrogacy are feminists. Many feminists will argue that surrogate women are pressured or forced into being surrogates when they really do not want to be. Feminists have even gone so far as to call surrogacy a reproductive prostitution. On

MCAN Health, a medical travel company based in Istanbul-Turkey, has announced its sponsorship of National Pharmacy Association (NPA), a not-for-profit organisation representing independent community pharmacies across the UK. Gulsultan Dogan, the Founder and CEO of MCAN Health, said that their company is dedicated to improving global healthcare accessibility, which aligned perfectly with the NPA's mission to boost community health services in the United Kingdom. On receiving the invitation letter from the NPA, Dogan said: "We did not hesitate to show our support and positively answer the invitation letter. "As a professional in the healthcare sector for years, I firmly believe medical care is a human right that should be accessible to everyone without enduring lengthy waiting lists."

The strength of any organisation lies in its people. This being a common norm in the world of business, several of them are taking healthy initiatives and opening discussions around gender diversity and equality. Panelists during a session on Empowering Women In the Workplace held during the Pharmacy Business Diversity Conference on Thursday (December 9), agreed that having gender diversity in business, not just benefits women, but the whole organisation. "It drives engagement, diversity of thinking and ultimately performance," said Ifti Khan, pharmacy superintendent at Well Pharmacy, in the session moderated by the conference chair and BBC presenter Clive Myrie. To substantiate his point, he cited a recent report by McKinsey & Company, as per which companies in the top quartile for ethnic and cultural diversity are 36 per cent more profitable than those in the fourth quartile.

Lack of appropriate funding is making survival a massive challenge for community pharmacy, a sector relied upon as a vital support system by both primary and secondary care in England. The Telegraph newspaper ran a story on Monday (August 22) which highlighted the dire straits community pharmacy finds itself in. Seasoned pharmacist Ian Strachan told the paper: "Our four pharmacies were the only point of call that was open (during Covid). We were there every single day, even when the virus was prevalent and people were dying." Describing the current situation, he said: "What is happening is we're facing a system that's just not working at all in our favour." Strachan says the issue is that pharmacists are "just not getting the help we need to be able to do this job properly". The sector is hugely dependent on funding from the NHS. The government had agreed in 2019 to set £2.6bn as annual funding for the sector. However, according to a report from EY that amount was already down £200m on the 2016 levels of government funding. "We've been starved of appropriate funding since 2016," Dr Leyla Hannbeck, chief executive of the Association of Independent Multiple Pharmacies told The Telegraph. "It looks grim for businesses. The fees pharmacists get are going nowhere, but now, there's higher utility bills, higher staff fees and higher drug costs."

It does not matter if you are a large and thriving hospital, a tiny startup clinic or a small private practice, you will find that medical equipment is a necessity for your business. This equipment will need to be dependable, high quality and top notch to keep you profitable.

Ochsner is led by the President and CEO, Warner Thomas - a leader with a strategic vision. He exemplifies courage in a time of change to ensure that the organization positively embraces disruption and continues to move in the right direction that is best for its patients.