Public Health Roundup: Progress Seen, Investment Needed

New business models might bring down vaccine prices and public-private partnerships could open the way to new treatments to deadly tropical diseases but some countries are lagging behind in their investments to reach their health targets, according to reports from public health organisations holding meetings in different parts of the world.

Few countries are reaching their development, health and research investment targets, according to a report card released yesterday by the Global Forum for Health Research during its annual meeting from 16-20 November, in Havana, Cuba. The report is entitled, “Who’s Investing and Who Cares?”

The Global Forum reviews targets and commitments for investments in development, health and research. Compared with 2006, according to a press release, the European Union needs to invest a further US$166.2 billion in research and development to “achieve the target of 3 percent of GDP set by the European Council for 2010.”

Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa are becoming key drivers of innovation among low and middle-income countries, according to the report.

Innovation could bring better, cheaper or more practical products to tackle diseases but it could also bring more effective ways to deliver products, or improve the management of people or of information, Gill Samuels, chair of the forum’s Foundation Council, told the meeting opening.

Today, the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) and pharmaceutical manufacturer Pfizer announced the signing of an agreement to address three deadly diseases affecting the developing countries.

Under this “public-private partnership,” DNDi will be able to access the Pfizer library of “novel chemical entities, in order to screen it for compounds that have the potential to be developed into new treatments,” according to DNDi press release.

Meanwhile, the Geneva-based Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI), which employs “private-sector thinking for innovation funding,” said today that its action in the vaccine market has led to a noticeable drop in price of one of the major combination vaccines.

GAVI said its partners have been able to vaccinate millions of more children in the developing world with pentavalent, a “gold standard for childhood immunisation because it delivers protection against five diseases: Hib (Haemophilus influenzae type b), diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus and hepatitis B,” according to GAVI’s website.

A further price drop in 2010 could allow the immunisation of 6.3 million more children, said GAVI, which expects that its business model based on the “expectation that rising demand for immunisation in developing countries induces more companies to produce vaccines,” helping to reduce prices.

According to GAVI’s website, it encourages R&D through strategies such as advanced market commitments in which “donors commit money to guarantee the price of vaccines once they are developed.”