R4D’s Center for Global Health R&D Policy Assessment is pleased to present its first policy assessment “Prizes for Global Health Technologies” for public review and commentary. The draft available here is open for public comment and feedback until November 30th, 2010.
The first in a series of policy evaluations to accelerate global research and development for diseases primarily affecting poor and developing nations, “Prizes for Global Health Technologies” seeks to understand and assess the best way large cash prize competitions can encourage pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to create vaccines, treatments and diagnostic tests for diseases in the developing world.
Using current proposals for prize competitions to develop rapid, low-cost and portable test for tuberculosis diagnostics, the report focuses on how prizes should be best structured and in what circumstances they can be effective in bringing solutions to public health challenges.
Some of the questions addressed by the Center’s work include:
• Are large cash prizes the best way to draw innovation and investment for diseases that do not have a presence outside of the developing world?
• Can the money associated with prizes and prize competitions entice companies to make products for new untested markets where the return on their investment is not guaranteed?
The Center for Global Health R&D Policy Assessment is being funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation to address such questions and evaluate policy proposals that seek to spur interest and investment in global health challenges and neglected tropical diseases.
Join the Conversation
We are currently soliciting feedback, dialogue and perspective on the draft assessment and encourage you to read and post your comments. Please join the conversation by clicking here www.healthresearchpolicy.org.
Looking ahead, over the next three years, the Center’s goal is to assess both the strengths and weaknesses and potential impacts of emerging policy proposals aimed at accelerating research and development for diseases of the developing world. For more information please visit www.healthresearchpolicy.org.