PLoS Medicine: Innovation and Access to Medicines for Neglected Populations: Could a Treaty Address a Broken Pharmaceutical R&D System?

abernard102@gmail.com 2012-05-16

Summary:

Use the link above to access the full text article from PLoS Medicine. “Summary Points” from the article are as follows: “he current system for the research and development (R&D) of new medicines does not adequately meet the needs of the majority of the world's population. [1] There is a lack of new medicines for the ‘neglected diseases’—those that primarily affect populations with little purchasing power, and therefore offer an insufficient incentive for industry to invest in R&D. However, with problems extending far beyond the narrow notion of neglected diseases, the issue is better understood as one of ‘neglected populations.’ [2] International debate and proposals for reform have ensued, including the recommendation that governments begin negotiations over a binding medical R&D convention to address systematic, long-standing problems with innovation and globally equitable access to medicines. Despite the emergence of many new approaches to generating R&D that meets the needs of poorer populations, efforts remain ad hoc, fragmented, and insufficient. [3] We discuss how an R&D treaty could complement and build on existing initiatives by addressing four areas where the system remains particularly weak: affordability, sustainable financing, efficiency in innovation, and equitable health-centered governance. [4] We argue that effective tools for global governance are required to generate medical R&D as a global public good, based on the understanding that a politically and financially sustainable system will require both fair contributions from all, and fair benefit-sharing for all.”

Link:

http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info:doi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pmed.1001218

Updated:

08/16/2012, 06:08

From feeds:

Open Access Tracking Project (OATP) » abernard102@gmail.com

Tags:

oa.medicine oa.new oa.gold oa.policies oa.government oa.south oa.plos oa.open_science oa.sustainability oa.funders oa.pharma oa.biomedicine oa.debates oa.journals oa.economics_of

Authors:

abernard

Date tagged:

05/16/2012, 13:50

Date published:

05/16/2012, 14:07