Piece that nicely lays out the costs to obtaining current medical literature, and the fact that they are prohibitive.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/19/health/a-way-to-brew-morphine-raises-concerns-over-regulation.html
Intriguing prospect for genengineered morphine, which in turns raises the thought of any of a range of drugs being made in such a fashion. Depending on how robust the yeast end up being, this could be a potential disruptor technology, like cellphones.
This chart does indeed do a good job explaining why (in part) the WHO lacks the ability to mandate global health norms, despite having a unique authority within the landscape. Not discussed but also involved are a financial structure that allows donors to earmark funding (such that much of the WHO funding is earmarked and not subject to allotment as needed) and a political structure that provides little power to the central office to hire (or fire) staff in the regional offices.
