HINARI, and its sister initiative, AGORA, are commendable initiatives and are undoubtedly warmly welcomed by researchers working in the eligible countries. Via these schemes, publishers give some of the poorest countries free access to some of their journals. In HINARI, twenty-eight publishers participate, making a total of more than 2000 journals available for free to some of the poorest countries (defined as having a per capita annual income of less than $1000); and at a deep discount for some slightly less disadvantaged countries (per capita annual income between $1000 and $3000). Unfortunately these schemes offer only a partial solution to the access problems of the developing world. The list of eligible countries has many notable omissions. It excludes large low-income countries such as India, Pakistan and Indonesia, even though these countries have per capita annual incomes of $735 or less, and are therefore "low-income" countries according to World Bank criteria. Countries such as Brazil and China (which are "lower-middle income" according to the World Bank) are also excluded from the eligibility list, even for discounts. There is an obvious explanation for these omissions. These larger countries have significant research programs, so publishers can generate substantial income by selling subscriptions to them. It appears that traditional publishers will only offer Open Access to the developing world when they can be sure it won't affect their profits. It is therefore clear that researchers in developing countries have a huge amount to gain from greatly expanded access to the global scientific literature that Open Access publishing will offer. Certainly, there are challenges that need to be faced to ensure that authors in developing countries can publish in Open Access journals, but these challenges are by no means insurmountable. Indeed, many low-income countries have already started their own Open Access journals. Meanwhile, BioMed Central currently offers a full waiver of the article processing charge to authors in low and low-middle income countries. Long term, the scientific community will certainly find ways to ensure that scientists in developing countries get the full benefit of Open Access, both as readers and as authors.