Financing Development of Drugs and Vaccines for Neglected Diseases
Date & time
Feb 1, 2010,
4:00-5:30 pm EST
Location
Commentator: Matthew Davis, Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Communicable Diseases and Associate Professor of Internal Medicine, Medical School and Associate Professor of Public Policy, Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, University of Michigan
Date: Monday, 01 February 4:00-5:30 pm
Location: 1110 Weill Hall (Betty Ford Classroom), 735 S. State St., Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy
Sponsored by The Herbert H. and Grace A. Dow Foundation
Co-Sponsored by the University of Michigan Department of Health Management and Policy and the University of Michigan International Policy Center
ABSTRACT: New drugs and vaccines could save millions of lives in the developing world. But drug and vaccine development is expensive, and many of these badly needed health technologies promise markets too small to interest the for-profit pharmaceutical industry, which dominates later stages of research and development. A number of new ways of filling this 'neglected disease R&D gap', from prizes and advance market commitments to patent pools, have been proposed; some are being tested. Most of these proposals constitute patches to the existing system, but some would entail a sweeping transformation of incentives and funding for R&D. These ideas-and criteria for evaluating them-are reviewed, and two cases are considered: vaccines and drugs against Chagas disease.
PAUL WILSON is a scientist and economist working to bring new drugs and vaccines to developing countries. A member of the faculty of Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, he has also served as Director of Policy Analysis at the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative and Associate Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University. He is the lead author of the UN Millennium Project report Combating AIDS in the Developing World. Dr. Wilson holds a Ph.D. in Zoology from the University of California at Be