PPPs for research and development
Globally, about US$60 billion is invested annually in health R&D, but only four per cent is directed at the diseases of poverty. Private sector investment is severely constrained by limited returns on products for markets with low purchasing power. Public sector policies to create the right incentive environment and substantial finance at the international level are required to stimulate and co-ordinate the development of new drugs, vaccines and diagnostics.
The most critical areas for R&D are drugs and vaccines for malaria and TB, and vaccines for HIV strains specific to developing countries. New vaccines could save eight million lives a year, but products are unlikely to be available within ten years. R&D is also needed to prevent and treat the most neglected diseases such as sleeping sickness, Chagas disease, and leishmaniasis. PPPs for product development include those for HIV and meningitis vaccines, for malaria and TB drugs and for several of the neglected tropical diseases.
- Public-private partnerships to build human capacity in low income countries: findings from the Pfizer program
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This article, published in Human Resources for Health, evaluates an approach to public-private partnership whereby corporate volunteers provide technical assistance to improve organisational and staff performance in the health sector in developing countries.
Recommended readings
- Global Health Forum I: creating global markets for neglected drugs and vaccines: a challenge for public-private partnership
- ( Institute for Global Health , 2000)
- Efforts to put the health gap between rich and poor countries at the top of the development political agenda have been renewed in recent years. With this momentum in place, a number of initiatives inv...
- Global Health Forum II: intellectual property rights and global health: challenges for access and R&D
- ( Institute for Global Health , 2000)
- The impact of stronger intellectual property (IP) rights regimes on public health has become the subject of considerable concern within international development circles. Views have frequently been di...
- Fatal imbalance: the crisis in research and development for drugs for neglected diseases
- ( Médecins Sans Frontières , 2001)
- The human suffering caused by infectious diseases could be reduced; with billions of dollars dedicated to health research and development (R&D) it should be possible to develop effective treatments fo...
- Public policies to stimulate the development of vaccines and drugs for the neglected diseases
- ( M. Kremer / Commission on Macroeconomics and Health, WHO , 2001)
- Malaria, tuberculosis and the strains of HIV prevalent in Africa kill over five million people a year, so why is so little research and development (R&D) directed towards these diseases? This working ...
Latest Additions
- Opportunities for scaling up neglected-disease drug development
- ( Mary Moran / Public Library of Science Medicine , 2005)
- Whereas only 13 new drugs have been developed for neglected tropical diseases since 1975, this paper, published in PLoS Medicine, notes that this is as a result of current perception that these diseas...
Fairly pricing antiretroviral drugs
- ( D. Dionisio;C. Fabbri;D. Messeri / Future Medicine , 2009)
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Despite progress, antiretroviral therapy coverage in low- and middle-income countries remains poor: only 31% of HIV-infected people in need were receiving treatment in 2007. Obstacles include weak ...
