Medical research versus disease burden in Africa

Hugo Confraria; L. Wang

doi:10.1016/j.respol.2019.103916

Medical research versus disease burden in Africa

Hugo Confraria^*, L. Wang

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

210 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Africa is a continent facing severe, urgent, and often unique health challenges. At the same time, in most African countries, national research funding is very limited and research systems are usually dependant on international research funding and collaboration. Therefore, in this context, there are worries that foreign partners will dominate medical research agendas, which may take research away from being relevant to specific local health needs. In this article, we investigate whether the distribution of medical research priorities and investment in medical research, across diseases in Africa, is related to the disease burden of local populations between 2006 and 2015. Our results show that, although African medical research capacity is still very weak and greatly dependant on public non-African and philanthropic funders, medical research specialisation in sub-Saharan Africa is generally associated with its disease burden.

Original language	English
Article number	103916
Number of pages	18
Journal	Research Policy
Volume	49
Issue number	3
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2019.103916
Publication status	Published - Apr 2020

JEL classifications

o32 - Management of Technological Innovation and R&D

Keywords

Disease burden
Research priorities
Science policy, Africa, Research funding
Economic and social effects
Finance
Disease burdens
International researches
Local populations
Medical research
Research funding
Research networks
Sub-saharan africa
Health
HEALTH RESEARCH
RESEARCH-AND-DEVELOPMENT
COVERAGE
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
POLICY
WEB
SCOPUS
SCIENCE

Access to Document

10.1016/j.respol.2019.103916

Full text Final published version, 4.92 MBLicence: Taverne

Cite this

@article{5f778f6b8b384574b06d64bddd9b3ac5,

title = "Medical research versus disease burden in Africa",

abstract = "Africa is a continent facing severe, urgent, and often unique health challenges. At the same time, in most African countries, national research funding is very limited and research systems are usually dependant on international research funding and collaboration. Therefore, in this context, there are worries that foreign partners will dominate medical research agendas, which may take research away from being relevant to specific local health needs. In this article, we investigate whether the distribution of medical research priorities and investment in medical research, across diseases in Africa, is related to the disease burden of local populations between 2006 and 2015. Our results show that, although African medical research capacity is still very weak and greatly dependant on public non-African and philanthropic funders, medical research specialisation in sub-Saharan Africa is generally associated with its disease burden.",

keywords = "Disease burden, Research priorities, Science policy, Africa, Research funding, Economic and social effects, Finance, Disease burdens, International researches, Local populations, Medical research, Research funding, Research networks, Sub-saharan africa, Health, HEALTH RESEARCH, RESEARCH-AND-DEVELOPMENT, COVERAGE, ACKNOWLEDGMENTS, POLICY, WEB, SCOPUS, SCIENCE",

author = "Hugo Confraria and L. Wang",

note = "Correspondence Address: Confraria, H.; SPRU - Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex Business SchoolUnited Kingdom; email: [email protected] Funding details: European Commission, EU Funding details: Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, BMGF Funding details: Wellcome Trust, WT Funding details: National Institutes of Health, NIH Funding text 1: We are also interested to know if each funder (or group of funders) supports research in specific diseases. and highlight the top 20 research funders in Africa by disease between 2011 and 2015. In , we analyse the research specialisation of each funder group in each African region by disease. All three tables are ordered by the number of publications in each disease in Africa. Table 1 Table 2 Table 1 , we calculated the percentage of publications supported by a specific funder in a specific disease in relation to the total amount of publications supported by that funder in Africa. In Table 2 , we divide the same numerator by the total amount of publications in a specific disease in Africa, to analyse the importance of each funder in each disease. Finally, in Table 3 One key finding in Table 1 and 2 is that “Parasitic and vector diseases”, “HIV/AIDS” and “Tuberculosis” are a priority for most top20 funders. These results are in line with Chapman et al. (2017) that also found that three diseases – HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis – collectively received more than two-thirds ($2247 m, 70%) of all global funding for neglected disease R&D in 2016. The only funders that are not so biased towards these three diseases are the National Research Council (in South Africa), Medical Research Council (in South Africa), Tunisian Government, GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer. These are all African funders and corporations that may have different priorities than international organisations. It is, however, important to notice the absence of Public African funders from Eastern Africa and West & Central Africa. In these regions, the importance of international funders such as the NIH, Wellcome Trust, Gates Foundation and the EU to fund medical research is very high. Interestingly, Gates Foundation funds more than 10% of African research on “neonatal conditions” which is the disease with the highest absolute disease burden in Eastern Africa and West & Central Africa. It has been argued that Gates Foundation investment has tried to balance the public sector focus on basic research ( Chapman et al., 2017 ). According to G-finder data, it has provided 55% of all funding to neglected diseases in the world to product development partnerships and 47% of all funding for platform technologies between 2007 and 2016. In Table 3 , we combine all this information in a matrix that displays the share of medical research funded by each group of funders in each African region. This is calculated by dividing the number of publications funded by a specific funder group in a disease in a region, by the total number of publications funded by that funder group in that region. We also show the total share of publications and DALYs in each region by disease to compare the research specialisation of each funder group with the research priorities and disease burden in each region. In Northern Africa, we can observe that there are some low burden diseases like “intestinal nematode”, “tuberculosis” and “parasitic and vector diseases” that receive a relatively high amount of funding from public African, public non-African and philanthropic groups. Overall, public non-African and philanthropic groups fund similar diseases, and in “Eastern Africa”, “Southern Africa” and “West & Central Africa” they are mostly focused on medical research in “parasitic and vector diseases”, “tuberculosis” and “HIV/AIDS”. The share of total funding from philanthropic and public non-African institutions to “parasitic and vector diseases” is particularly high in “West & Central Africa” and “Eastern Africa”. It represents more than 40% of the total funding of these institutions in both regions. “Parasitic and vector diseases” group includes diseases such as malaria, dengue, trachoma, yellow fever, rabies, chagas disease, amongst others. Malaria is by far the condition that leads to higher disease burden in this category. According to Head et al. (2017) , global research funding for malaria in sub-Saharan Africa is mostly allocated to Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Malawi, Ghana, and Nigeria. These are locations with a track record of success in similar projects where it is perceived that investments will make a positive difference and where any research will be feasible. The research supported by corporations is substantially higher in absolute terms in Southern Africa, and in areas such as “diabetes”, “cardiovascular diseases”, “respiratory infections/diseases” and “mental and substance use disorders”. 4.3 References: Aizer, A., Stroud, L., Education, Knowledge and the Evolution of Disparities in Health (2010), National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series Cambridge, MA; (2017), AMS-IAP Strengthening clinical research capacity in low- and middle-income countries, Workshop report. 3–4July 2017London, United Kingdom. London; Atal, I., Trinquart, L., Ravaud, P., Porcher, R., A mapping of 115,000 randomized trials revealed a mismatch between research effort and health needs in non–high-income regions (2018) J. Clin. Epidemiol., 98, pp. 123-132; Balassa, B., Trade liberalisation and “Revealed” comparative advantage (1965) Manchester Sch, 33, pp. 99-123; Barnard, H., Cowan, R., M{\"u}ller, M., Global excellence at the expense of local diffusion, or a bridge between two worlds? Research in science and technology in the developing world (2012) Res. Policy, 41, pp. 756-769; Cardoso, A.L., Breugelmans, G., Manville, C., Chataway, J., Cochrane, G., James, S., Chataway, M., Murali, N., (2014), Africa mapping - Current state of health research on poverty-related and neglected infectious diseases in sub-Saharan africa. The Hague, Netherlands; Cassi, L., Lahatte, A., Rafols, I., Sautier, P., de Turckheim, {\'E}., Improving fitness: Mapping research priorities against societal needs on obesity (2017) J. Informetr., 11 (4), pp. 1095-1113; Chapman, N., Doubell, A., Oversteegen, L., Chowdhary, V., Rugarabamu, G., Zanetti, R., Ong, M., Borri, J., (2017), Neglected disease research and development: reflecting on a decade of global investment; Chataway, J., Dobson, C., Daniels, C., Byrne, R., Hanlin, R., Tigabu, A., Science granting councils in sub-saharan africa: Trends and tensions (2019) Sci. Public Policy, pp. 1-12; Chataway, J., Ochieng, C., Byrne, R., Daniels, C., Dobson, C., Hanlin, R., Hopkins, M., (2017), Case studies of the political economy of science granting councils in sub-saharan africa; Chavarro, D., Tang, P., Rafols, I., Why researchers publish in non-mainstream journals: training, knowledge bridging, and gap filling (2017) Res. Policy, 46, pp. 1666-1680; Ciarli, T., R{\`a}fols, I., The relation between research priorities and societal demands: the case of rice (2018) Res. Policy; Cochrane, G., Morgan Jones, M., Marjanovic, S., MacLure, C., Varnai, P., Jongh, T., de Rosemberg, C., Chataway, J., (2017), Evaluation of the impact of the European Union's research funding for poverty-related and neglected diseases. Luxembourg; Confraria, H., Blanckenberg, J., Swart, C., The characteristics of highly cited researchers in Africa (2018) Res. Eval., 27, pp. 222-237; Confraria, H., Godinho, M.M., The impact of African science: a bibliometric analysis (2015) Scientometrics, 102, pp. 1241-1268; Costas, R., Leeuwen, T.N., Approaching the “reward triangle”: general analysis of the presence of funding acknowledgments and “peer interactive communication” in scientific publications (2012) J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci. Technol., 63, pp. 1647-1661; Evans, J.A., Shim, J.-M., Ioannidis, J.P.A., Attention to local health burden and the global disparity of health research (2014) PLoS ONE, 9, p. e90147; Ezeh, A.C., Izugbara, C.O., Kabiru, C.W., Fonn, S., Kahn, K., Manderson, L., Undieh, A.S., Thorogood, M., Building capacity for public and population health research in africa: the consortium for advanced research training in africa (CARTA) model (2010) Glob. Health Action, 3; Grassano, N., Rotolo, D., Hutton, J., Lang, F., Hopkins, M.M., Funding data from publication acknowledgments: coverage, uses, and limitations (2017) J. Assoc. Inf. Sci. Technol., 68, pp. 999-1017; Guindon, G.E., Lavis, J.N., Becerra-Posada, F., Malek-Afzali, H., Shi, G., Yesudian, C.A.K., Hoffman, S.J., Bridging the gaps between research, policy and practice in low- and middle-income countries: a survey of health care providers (2010) CMAJ, 182, pp. E362-E372; Head, M.G., Goss, S., Gelister, Y., Alegana, V., Brown, R.J., Clarke, S.C., Fitchett, J.R.A., Tatem, A.J., Global funding trends for malaria research in sub-Saharan Africa: a systematic analysis (2017) Lancet. Glob. Heal., 5, pp. e772-e781; Jones, N., Bailey, M., Lyytik{\"a}inen, M., Research capacity strengthening in Africa: trends, gaps and opportunities (2007) Oversears Dev. Inst., 44, pp. 1-17; Juma, C., (2016), Education, research, and innovation in africa forging strategic linkages for economic transformation (No. 2016–01); Karim, S.S.A., Karim, Q.A., AIDS research must link to local policy (2010) Nature, 463, pp. 733-734; Kokol, P., Vo{\v s}ner, H.B., Discrepancies among scopus, web of science, and pubmed coverage of funding information in medical journal articles (2018) J. Med. Libr. Assoc., 106, pp. 81-86; Kozma, C., Calero Medina, C., Costas, R., Research Funding Landscapes in Africa (2018), pp. 26-42. , C. Beadry J. Mouton H. Prozesky (Eds The Next Generation of Scientists in Africa. African Minds Cape Town; Lalonde, M., A New Perpective on the Health of Canadians (1974) Ottawa, , http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/ph-sp/pdf/perspect-eng.pdf, Retrieved from; Lee, B.Y., Bacon, K.M., Bottazzi, M.E., Hotez, P.J., Global economic burden of chagas disease: a computational simulation model (2013) Lancet Infect. Dis., 13, pp. 342-348. , Global; Mackintosh, M., Mugwagwa, J., Banda, G., Tibandebage, P., Tunguhole, J., Wangwe, S., Karimi Njeru, M., Health-industry linkages for local health: reframing policies for African health system strengthening (2018) Health Policy Plan, 33, pp. 602-610; McGregor, S., Henderson, K.J., Kaldor, J.M., How are health research priorities set in low and middle income countries? A systematic review of published reports (2014) PLoS One, 9; Mgone, C., Volmink, J., Coles, D., Makanga, M., Jaffar, S., Sewankambo, N., Linking research and development to strengthen health systems in Africa (2010) Trop. Med. Int. Heal., 15, pp. 1404-1406; Mina, A., Ramlogan, R., Tampubolon, G., Metcalfe, J.S., Mapping evolutionary trajectories: applications to the growth and transformation of medical knowledge (2007) Res. Policy, 36, pp. 789-806; Mongeon, P., Paul-Hus, A., The journal coverage of web of science and scopus: a comparative analysis (2016) Scientometrics, 106, pp. 213-228; Mouton, J., Africa's science decline. harvard (2008) Int. Rev, 30, pp. 46-51. , doi:Article; Moyi Okwaro, F., Geissler, P.W., In/dependent collaborations: perceptions and experiences of african scientists in transnational hiv research (2015) Med. Anthropol. Q., 29, pp. 492-511; Clinical guidelines - Diagnosis and treatment manual (2016) Clinical Guidelines Diagnosis and Treatment Manual; Rafols, I., Yegros, A., Is research responding to health needs? (2017) SSRN Electron. J.; Rigby, J., Systematic grant and funding body acknowledgement data for publications: new dimensions and new controversies for research policy and evaluation (2011) Res. Eval., 20, pp. 365-375; R{\o}ttingen, J.A., Regmi, S., Eide, M., Young, A.J., Viergever, R.F., Ardal, C., Guzman, J., Terry, R.F., Mapping of available health research and development data: what's there, what's missing, and what role is there for a global observatory? (2013) Lancet, 382, pp. 1286-1307; Sarewitz, D., Nelson, R., Three rules for technological fixes (2008) Nature, 456, pp. 871-872; Sarewitz, D., Pielke, R.A., Jr., The neglected heart of science policy: reconciling supply of and demand for science. environ. sci. policy, reconciling the supply of and demand for science, with a focus on carbon (2007) Cycle Res., 10, pp. 5-16; Sawyerr, A., African universities and the challenge of research capacity development (2014) J. High. Educ. Africa / Rev. l'enseignement sup{\'e}rieur en Afrique; Swingler, G.H., Pillay, V., Pienaar, E.D., Ioannidis, J.P.A., International collaboration, funding and association with burden of disease in randomized controlled trials in Africa (2005) Bull. World Health Organ., 83, pp. 511-517; Taylor, D., The pharmaceutical industry and health in the third world (1986) Soc. Sci. Med., 22, pp. 1141-1149; Tijssen, R., Kraemer-Mbula, E., Research excellence in africa: policies, perceptions, and performance (2017) Sci. Public Policy; Ending aids progress towards the 90-90-90 targets (2017) Glob. Aids Updat, 198. , UNAIDS/JC2900E; (2015), UNESCO (Ed.) UNESCO science report: towards2030. UNESCO Publishing, Paris; Whitworth, J.A.G., Kokwaro, G., Kinyanjui, S., Snewin, V.A., Tanner, M., Walport, M., Sewankambo, N., (2008) Strengthening Capacity For Health Research in Africa, 372, pp. 1590-1593. , Lancet London, England; WHO methods and data sources for global burden of disease estimates (2017) WHO; Research and development to meet health needs in developing countries: strengthening global financing and coordination report of the consultative expert working group on research and development (2012) Financing and Coordination Briefing to Representatives of",

year = "2020",

month = apr,

doi = "10.1016/j.respol.2019.103916",

language = "English",

volume = "49",

journal = "Research Policy",

issn = "0048-7333",

publisher = "Elsevier B.V.",

number = "3",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Medical research versus disease burden in Africa

AU - Confraria, Hugo

AU - Wang, L.

N1 - Correspondence Address: Confraria, H.; SPRU - Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex Business SchoolUnited Kingdom; email: [email protected] Funding details: European Commission, EU Funding details: Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, BMGF Funding details: Wellcome Trust, WT Funding details: National Institutes of Health, NIH Funding text 1: We are also interested to know if each funder (or group of funders) supports research in specific diseases. and highlight the top 20 research funders in Africa by disease between 2011 and 2015. In , we analyse the research specialisation of each funder group in each African region by disease. All three tables are ordered by the number of publications in each disease in Africa. Table 1 Table 2 Table 1 , we calculated the percentage of publications supported by a specific funder in a specific disease in relation to the total amount of publications supported by that funder in Africa. In Table 2 , we divide the same numerator by the total amount of publications in a specific disease in Africa, to analyse the importance of each funder in each disease. Finally, in Table 3 One key finding in Table 1 and 2 is that “Parasitic and vector diseases”, “HIV/AIDS” and “Tuberculosis” are a priority for most top20 funders. These results are in line with Chapman et al. (2017) that also found that three diseases – HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis – collectively received more than two-thirds ($2247 m, 70%) of all global funding for neglected disease R&D in 2016. The only funders that are not so biased towards these three diseases are the National Research Council (in South Africa), Medical Research Council (in South Africa), Tunisian Government, GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer. These are all African funders and corporations that may have different priorities than international organisations. It is, however, important to notice the absence of Public African funders from Eastern Africa and West & Central Africa. In these regions, the importance of international funders such as the NIH, Wellcome Trust, Gates Foundation and the EU to fund medical research is very high. Interestingly, Gates Foundation funds more than 10% of African research on “neonatal conditions” which is the disease with the highest absolute disease burden in Eastern Africa and West & Central Africa. It has been argued that Gates Foundation investment has tried to balance the public sector focus on basic research ( Chapman et al., 2017 ). According to G-finder data, it has provided 55% of all funding to neglected diseases in the world to product development partnerships and 47% of all funding for platform technologies between 2007 and 2016. In Table 3 , we combine all this information in a matrix that displays the share of medical research funded by each group of funders in each African region. This is calculated by dividing the number of publications funded by a specific funder group in a disease in a region, by the total number of publications funded by that funder group in that region. We also show the total share of publications and DALYs in each region by disease to compare the research specialisation of each funder group with the research priorities and disease burden in each region. In Northern Africa, we can observe that there are some low burden diseases like “intestinal nematode”, “tuberculosis” and “parasitic and vector diseases” that receive a relatively high amount of funding from public African, public non-African and philanthropic groups. Overall, public non-African and philanthropic groups fund similar diseases, and in “Eastern Africa”, “Southern Africa” and “West & Central Africa” they are mostly focused on medical research in “parasitic and vector diseases”, “tuberculosis” and “HIV/AIDS”. The share of total funding from philanthropic and public non-African institutions to “parasitic and vector diseases” is particularly high in “West & Central Africa” and “Eastern Africa”. It represents more than 40% of the total funding of these institutions in both regions. “Parasitic and vector diseases” group includes diseases such as malaria, dengue, trachoma, yellow fever, rabies, chagas disease, amongst others. Malaria is by far the condition that leads to higher disease burden in this category. According to Head et al. (2017) , global research funding for malaria in sub-Saharan Africa is mostly allocated to Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Malawi, Ghana, and Nigeria. These are locations with a track record of success in similar projects where it is perceived that investments will make a positive difference and where any research will be feasible. The research supported by corporations is substantially higher in absolute terms in Southern Africa, and in areas such as “diabetes”, “cardiovascular diseases”, “respiratory infections/diseases” and “mental and substance use disorders”. 4.3 References: Aizer, A., Stroud, L., Education, Knowledge and the Evolution of Disparities in Health (2010), National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series Cambridge, MA; (2017), AMS-IAP Strengthening clinical research capacity in low- and middle-income countries, Workshop report. 3–4July 2017London, United Kingdom. London; Atal, I., Trinquart, L., Ravaud, P., Porcher, R., A mapping of 115,000 randomized trials revealed a mismatch between research effort and health needs in non–high-income regions (2018) J. Clin. Epidemiol., 98, pp. 123-132; Balassa, B., Trade liberalisation and “Revealed” comparative advantage (1965) Manchester Sch, 33, pp. 99-123; Barnard, H., Cowan, R., Müller, M., Global excellence at the expense of local diffusion, or a bridge between two worlds? Research in science and technology in the developing world (2012) Res. Policy, 41, pp. 756-769; Cardoso, A.L., Breugelmans, G., Manville, C., Chataway, J., Cochrane, G., James, S., Chataway, M., Murali, N., (2014), Africa mapping - Current state of health research on poverty-related and neglected infectious diseases in sub-Saharan africa. The Hague, Netherlands; Cassi, L., Lahatte, A., Rafols, I., Sautier, P., de Turckheim, É., Improving fitness: Mapping research priorities against societal needs on obesity (2017) J. Informetr., 11 (4), pp. 1095-1113; Chapman, N., Doubell, A., Oversteegen, L., Chowdhary, V., Rugarabamu, G., Zanetti, R., Ong, M., Borri, J., (2017), Neglected disease research and development: reflecting on a decade of global investment; Chataway, J., Dobson, C., Daniels, C., Byrne, R., Hanlin, R., Tigabu, A., Science granting councils in sub-saharan africa: Trends and tensions (2019) Sci. Public Policy, pp. 1-12; Chataway, J., Ochieng, C., Byrne, R., Daniels, C., Dobson, C., Hanlin, R., Hopkins, M., (2017), Case studies of the political economy of science granting councils in sub-saharan africa; Chavarro, D., Tang, P., Rafols, I., Why researchers publish in non-mainstream journals: training, knowledge bridging, and gap filling (2017) Res. Policy, 46, pp. 1666-1680; Ciarli, T., Ràfols, I., The relation between research priorities and societal demands: the case of rice (2018) Res. Policy; Cochrane, G., Morgan Jones, M., Marjanovic, S., MacLure, C., Varnai, P., Jongh, T., de Rosemberg, C., Chataway, J., (2017), Evaluation of the impact of the European Union's research funding for poverty-related and neglected diseases. Luxembourg; Confraria, H., Blanckenberg, J., Swart, C., The characteristics of highly cited researchers in Africa (2018) Res. Eval., 27, pp. 222-237; Confraria, H., Godinho, M.M., The impact of African science: a bibliometric analysis (2015) Scientometrics, 102, pp. 1241-1268; Costas, R., Leeuwen, T.N., Approaching the “reward triangle”: general analysis of the presence of funding acknowledgments and “peer interactive communication” in scientific publications (2012) J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci. Technol., 63, pp. 1647-1661; Evans, J.A., Shim, J.-M., Ioannidis, J.P.A., Attention to local health burden and the global disparity of health research (2014) PLoS ONE, 9, p. e90147; Ezeh, A.C., Izugbara, C.O., Kabiru, C.W., Fonn, S., Kahn, K., Manderson, L., Undieh, A.S., Thorogood, M., Building capacity for public and population health research in africa: the consortium for advanced research training in africa (CARTA) model (2010) Glob. Health Action, 3; Grassano, N., Rotolo, D., Hutton, J., Lang, F., Hopkins, M.M., Funding data from publication acknowledgments: coverage, uses, and limitations (2017) J. Assoc. Inf. Sci. Technol., 68, pp. 999-1017; Guindon, G.E., Lavis, J.N., Becerra-Posada, F., Malek-Afzali, H., Shi, G., Yesudian, C.A.K., Hoffman, S.J., Bridging the gaps between research, policy and practice in low- and middle-income countries: a survey of health care providers (2010) CMAJ, 182, pp. E362-E372; Head, M.G., Goss, S., Gelister, Y., Alegana, V., Brown, R.J., Clarke, S.C., Fitchett, J.R.A., Tatem, A.J., Global funding trends for malaria research in sub-Saharan Africa: a systematic analysis (2017) Lancet. Glob. Heal., 5, pp. e772-e781; Jones, N., Bailey, M., Lyytikäinen, M., Research capacity strengthening in Africa: trends, gaps and opportunities (2007) Oversears Dev. Inst., 44, pp. 1-17; Juma, C., (2016), Education, research, and innovation in africa forging strategic linkages for economic transformation (No. 2016–01); Karim, S.S.A., Karim, Q.A., AIDS research must link to local policy (2010) Nature, 463, pp. 733-734; Kokol, P., Vošner, H.B., Discrepancies among scopus, web of science, and pubmed coverage of funding information in medical journal articles (2018) J. Med. Libr. Assoc., 106, pp. 81-86; Kozma, C., Calero Medina, C., Costas, R., Research Funding Landscapes in Africa (2018), pp. 26-42. , C. Beadry J. Mouton H. Prozesky (Eds The Next Generation of Scientists in Africa. African Minds Cape Town; Lalonde, M., A New Perpective on the Health of Canadians (1974) Ottawa, , http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/ph-sp/pdf/perspect-eng.pdf, Retrieved from; Lee, B.Y., Bacon, K.M., Bottazzi, M.E., Hotez, P.J., Global economic burden of chagas disease: a computational simulation model (2013) Lancet Infect. Dis., 13, pp. 342-348. , Global; Mackintosh, M., Mugwagwa, J., Banda, G., Tibandebage, P., Tunguhole, J., Wangwe, S., Karimi Njeru, M., Health-industry linkages for local health: reframing policies for African health system strengthening (2018) Health Policy Plan, 33, pp. 602-610; McGregor, S., Henderson, K.J., Kaldor, J.M., How are health research priorities set in low and middle income countries? A systematic review of published reports (2014) PLoS One, 9; Mgone, C., Volmink, J., Coles, D., Makanga, M., Jaffar, S., Sewankambo, N., Linking research and development to strengthen health systems in Africa (2010) Trop. Med. Int. Heal., 15, pp. 1404-1406; Mina, A., Ramlogan, R., Tampubolon, G., Metcalfe, J.S., Mapping evolutionary trajectories: applications to the growth and transformation of medical knowledge (2007) Res. Policy, 36, pp. 789-806; Mongeon, P., Paul-Hus, A., The journal coverage of web of science and scopus: a comparative analysis (2016) Scientometrics, 106, pp. 213-228; Mouton, J., Africa's science decline. harvard (2008) Int. Rev, 30, pp. 46-51. , doi:Article; Moyi Okwaro, F., Geissler, P.W., In/dependent collaborations: perceptions and experiences of african scientists in transnational hiv research (2015) Med. Anthropol. Q., 29, pp. 492-511; Clinical guidelines - Diagnosis and treatment manual (2016) Clinical Guidelines Diagnosis and Treatment Manual; Rafols, I., Yegros, A., Is research responding to health needs? (2017) SSRN Electron. J.; Rigby, J., Systematic grant and funding body acknowledgement data for publications: new dimensions and new controversies for research policy and evaluation (2011) Res. Eval., 20, pp. 365-375; Røttingen, J.A., Regmi, S., Eide, M., Young, A.J., Viergever, R.F., Ardal, C., Guzman, J., Terry, R.F., Mapping of available health research and development data: what's there, what's missing, and what role is there for a global observatory? (2013) Lancet, 382, pp. 1286-1307; Sarewitz, D., Nelson, R., Three rules for technological fixes (2008) Nature, 456, pp. 871-872; Sarewitz, D., Pielke, R.A., Jr., The neglected heart of science policy: reconciling supply of and demand for science. environ. sci. policy, reconciling the supply of and demand for science, with a focus on carbon (2007) Cycle Res., 10, pp. 5-16; Sawyerr, A., African universities and the challenge of research capacity development (2014) J. High. Educ. Africa / Rev. l'enseignement supérieur en Afrique; Swingler, G.H., Pillay, V., Pienaar, E.D., Ioannidis, J.P.A., International collaboration, funding and association with burden of disease in randomized controlled trials in Africa (2005) Bull. World Health Organ., 83, pp. 511-517; Taylor, D., The pharmaceutical industry and health in the third world (1986) Soc. Sci. Med., 22, pp. 1141-1149; Tijssen, R., Kraemer-Mbula, E., Research excellence in africa: policies, perceptions, and performance (2017) Sci. Public Policy; Ending aids progress towards the 90-90-90 targets (2017) Glob. Aids Updat, 198. , UNAIDS/JC2900E; (2015), UNESCO (Ed.) UNESCO science report: towards2030. UNESCO Publishing, Paris; Whitworth, J.A.G., Kokwaro, G., Kinyanjui, S., Snewin, V.A., Tanner, M., Walport, M., Sewankambo, N., (2008) Strengthening Capacity For Health Research in Africa, 372, pp. 1590-1593. , Lancet London, England; WHO methods and data sources for global burden of disease estimates (2017) WHO; Research and development to meet health needs in developing countries: strengthening global financing and coordination report of the consultative expert working group on research and development (2012) Financing and Coordination Briefing to Representatives of

PY - 2020/4

Y1 - 2020/4

N2 - Africa is a continent facing severe, urgent, and often unique health challenges. At the same time, in most African countries, national research funding is very limited and research systems are usually dependant on international research funding and collaboration. Therefore, in this context, there are worries that foreign partners will dominate medical research agendas, which may take research away from being relevant to specific local health needs. In this article, we investigate whether the distribution of medical research priorities and investment in medical research, across diseases in Africa, is related to the disease burden of local populations between 2006 and 2015. Our results show that, although African medical research capacity is still very weak and greatly dependant on public non-African and philanthropic funders, medical research specialisation in sub-Saharan Africa is generally associated with its disease burden.

AB - Africa is a continent facing severe, urgent, and often unique health challenges. At the same time, in most African countries, national research funding is very limited and research systems are usually dependant on international research funding and collaboration. Therefore, in this context, there are worries that foreign partners will dominate medical research agendas, which may take research away from being relevant to specific local health needs. In this article, we investigate whether the distribution of medical research priorities and investment in medical research, across diseases in Africa, is related to the disease burden of local populations between 2006 and 2015. Our results show that, although African medical research capacity is still very weak and greatly dependant on public non-African and philanthropic funders, medical research specialisation in sub-Saharan Africa is generally associated with its disease burden.

KW - Disease burden

KW - Research priorities

KW - Science policy, Africa, Research funding

KW - Economic and social effects

KW - Finance

KW - Disease burdens

KW - International researches

KW - Local populations

KW - Medical research

KW - Research funding

KW - Research networks

KW - Sub-saharan africa

KW - Health

KW - HEALTH RESEARCH

KW - RESEARCH-AND-DEVELOPMENT

KW - COVERAGE

KW - ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

KW - POLICY

KW - WEB

KW - SCOPUS

KW - SCIENCE

U2 - 10.1016/j.respol.2019.103916

DO - 10.1016/j.respol.2019.103916

M3 - Article

SN - 0048-7333

VL - 49

JO - Research Policy

JF - Research Policy

IS - 3

M1 - 103916

ER -

Medical research versus disease burden in Africa

Abstract

JEL classifications

Keywords

Access to Document

Fingerprint

Cite this