Incentives for Research into Neglected Tropical Diseases

One of the many topics that have been discussed in the wake of the WHO’s intergovernmental working group on public health, innovation and intellectual property, is the issue of incentives for research into neglected tropical diseases.  Over the past decade, many public-private partnerships, government programs and other initiatives have fostered medical research into diseases primarily affecting developping countries and strengthened regional healthcare infrastructure.  While more can always be done, it is also important not to jeopardize existing programs.

The Center for Global Development’s Global Health Policy blog discusses one promising new incentive scheme — The Priority Voucher Review:

…the PRV program, it is a new bipartisan incentive mechanism passed by Congress and signed into law in September of 2007. The legislation rewards the sponsor of a neglected tropical disease product with a tradable voucher upon its FDA approval. The voucher can then be used to obtain a priority (speedier) review for another product.

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MSF argues that big pharmaceutical companies will abuse the legislation, scouring their pipelines and dusty shelves to register existing products they had no prior plans for. This is a flawed argument. The legislation specifically excludes combination therapies (where any active ingredient has previously been approved been FDA approved), and it will only award a PRV for a product that is either a significant improvement over the current treatment, or where no current treatment exists. This is why Novartis is the only company to come forward and apply for FDA approval thus far. It should also be noted that there are not dusty shelves full of neglected disease products; in fact, there are too few products for neglected diseases – exactly why this incentive was created. Even if companies did come forward with these hypothetical, existing products, the vouchers would be a well deserved reward for investment in neglected diseases.

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No incentive scheme will be perfect, but the PRV program is an innovative mechanism to increase this much-needed R&D in neglected diseases. It is a unique way for the US to use its own market-based, profit oriented business model for the good of the developing world, and the U.S. Congress should be commended for this farsighted legislation.

Read the full article on the Global Health Policy blog.