Global Development recently published an overview of activities and impacts of product development partnerships (PDPs), commissioned by the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO, formerly DFID). The study entitled ‘Accelerating global health R&D: the role of product development partnerships’ assesses development of new medicines and technologies for 35 poverty-related and neglected diseases, including HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. The findings and recommendations will help shape future investments and activities in this field for the UK government and other major government donors and philanthropies.
PDPs, including IVCC, work as virtual orchestras by acting as R&D systems facilitators, aggregating funding and technical expertise from public, private, academic and philanthropic sectors to develop vaccines, drugs and other technologies for diseases of poverty. They were formed 20 years ago to address the so-called 10/90 gap which strikingly still persists today. This gap shows that only 10% of worldwide resources devoted to health research are put towards health in developing countries, where over 90% of all preventable deaths exist, according to the findings by the Forum on Health Research for Development in 1990.
“The Global Development report ‘Accelerating global health R&D: the role of product development partnerships’ was just published and is one of several independent PDP impact reports in the past year by different organisations, including Australia Aid and PDP Funders Group. These reports are timely as we engage in a debate about the future of PDP funding post the Covid-19 pandemic. All reports confirm that the PDP model has been one of the most successful approaches to address the need for products to tackle diseases in resource poor countries. PDPs are highly cost effective and their pipelines are robust, but that they need sustained and flexible funding to increase their impact on global health and development. The latest report confirms that the ten PDPs assessed within the context of this study have collectively brought 85 new products to market, including 3 vaccines, 27 therapeutics, 50 diagnostics or health technologies, and 5 vector control tools. PDPs are seen as ‘virtual R&D conductors’ that ‘successfully cultivate and enhance networks of partners in industry, academia, research institutes, governments and philanthropies’. PDP’s such as IVCC will continue to play a critical role in driving public/private partnerships to ensure global health security.”
Nick Hamon, CEO, IVCC