R4D’s Center for Global Health R&D Policy Assessment released its fourth report, “R&D Tax Credits: A Tool to Advance Global Health Technologies?” The report discusses whether tax credits are an effective means to spur pharmaceutical research and development (R&D) for diseases of the poor.

The author, Aarthi Rao, explores whether or not tax credits, which are used throughout the world to encourage investment in R&D, are a good tool to encourage large biotechnology and pharmaceutical firms in the United States to increase expenditure for global health. The report examines the experience of previous tax credits for pharmaceutical R&D such as the Orphan Drug Clinical Research Credit, the UK’s Vaccine Research Relief Programme and others in order to assess the implications of recently proposed legislation for neglected disease R&D in the US.

In addition to the full report, a commentary on tax credits for global health R&D will be featured in the Journal of Commercial Biotechnology in the near future.

The Center for Global Health R&D Policy Assessment’s goal is to expand and improve the information used by governments, philanthropists and private investors in making decisions on new ways to accelerate global health research and development. To learn more visit http://healthresearchpolicy.org/.