Different Perspectives on Research and Development Incentives for Diseases of the Poor

In the field of global health, we are working toward a world in which everyone can exercise their fundamental “right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health” (world health organization 1946). This encompasses the right to access to medicines, including the availability of new medicines (un general assembly 2008). Research and development (r&d) for new medicines should therefore meet the health needs of all people. Unfortunately, current r&d efforts largely neglect diseases that primarily affect the poor.1 out of the 1,035 drugs developed between 1975 and 1999, only one percent of these were for diseases that disproportionally affect the poor (hubbard and love 2004). This lack of effective treatments is leaving millions of people worldwide at risk of disability and death.