Scientists Fighting Zika Vow To Stop 'Parachute Research,' Share Discoveries Quickly And Widely : Goats and Soda : NPR

"Critics call them 'parachute researchers': Scientists from wealthy nations who swoop in when a puzzling disease breaks out in a developing country. They collect specimens, then head straight back home to analyze them. They don't coordinate with people fighting the epidemic on the ground — don't even share their discoveries for months, if ever. Sometimes it's because they want to publish their results – and medical journals prefer exclusives. And sometimes it's because they can make a lot of money by coming up with copyrighted treatments for the disease. Now there's concern that parachute research could make it harder to stop the Zika outbreak. In response scientists and global health officials have launched an unprecedented worldwide effort to curb the practice. Step one, they say, is to recognize that parachute research is a chronic problem ... Encouraged by WHO, some of the big research funders are making scientists promise they'll reveal results of Zika research immediately. And major journals have announced they'll still publish Zika findings that have already been made public. Still, Heymann says there have been hiccups ..."