The Influence Of Intellectual Property Protection On Drug Development For Neglected Tropical Diseases

A. Uwland, D. Townend

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterAcademic

Abstract

Neglected tropical diseases (ntds) are a group of 17 tropical diseases designated by the world health organization (who). These diseases affect a billion of the poorest people worldwide, which is one-sixth of the world’s population. They usually have high morbidity rates but do not often result in death, thereby posing an urgent public health concern. In high-income countries, these diseases affect a small number of patients; this limits the market for drug sales to a very small population and makes it impossible to recover research and development (r&d) costs, making pharmaceutical responses to these diseases commercially unattractive. In 2010, the who published their first report on ntds, suggesting they are also “policy neglected” (crompton 2010). Ntds are strongly associated with poverty, flourishing in poor environments such as remote rural areas, urban slums, and shantytowns. Sufferers are without financial means to seek treatment, making them invisible. Stigmatization that comes with infection produces a vicious circle: disability that further locks sufferers into poverty. Ntds kill people, but not in the same quantity as malaria, tuberculosis, and hiv/aids. Ntds are less prominent and, because they do not travel from their low-income locations, they pose no (immediate) threat to high-income countries (crompton 2010).keywordsgross domestic productintellectual propertyvisceral leishmaniasistropical diseaseintellectual property protectionthese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationMaking Global Health Care Innovation Work: Standardization and Localization
EditorsN. Engel, I. van Hoyweghen, A. Krumeich
Place of PublicationNew York
PublisherPalgrave Macmillan
Pages181-197
ISBN (Print)9781137456021
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2014

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