The George Institute argues that drugs for neglected diseases are increasingly being developed partly due to the use of public-private partnership (PPP) mechanisms that spread the financial and organizational risk of product development.
This is despite the fact that these diseases mainly affect the poor in developing countries and development of treatments is inhibitive due to lack of economic demand. Researchers argue that the rate of development of drugs would increase if more incentives were created using patent rights and providing guarantees to purchase drugs for the poor as they are developed.
Steven Matlin, executive director of the Global Forum for Health Research said that he does not believe the increases in development of health products for neglected diseases are simply due to the rise of PPPs. Mr Matlin also points to the rise of a group of “innovating developing countries” (IDCs), including Brazil, China, India and South Africa. He argues that these countries have “growing national capacity for high-quality manufacturing to convert the inventions into health products for both domestic and international markets.”
Meanwhile, Robert Eiss, executive director of the Centre for the Management of Intellectual Property in Health Research, believes that correct market incentives and, in particular, appropriate intellectual property management are lacking. Mr Eiss states that there is a “need to develop and promote forms of intellectual property management and technology transfer practice that help ensure access for the poor through the strategic use of such tools as price tiering and market segmentation, and the engagement of R&D and manufacturing capacities in countries where the targeted disease is endemic.”