While the United States government (USG) continues to be the world’s largest funder of product development for global health, its funding for global research and development (R&D) has decreased in the last few years. Early indications are that this downward trend will continue under the Trump Administration.
Amid these realities comes the recently published report “Strengthening the U.S. Government’s Role in Product Development in Global Health” which builds the case for why and how the U.S. role should be strengthened. In the report, global health R&D is defined as development of any new medicines, vaccines, diagnostics, and other health technologies designed to tackle a specific list of poverty-related and neglected diseases and conditions.
With funding from the Global Health Technologies Coalition, researchers from the Duke Margolis Center for Health Policy, the Duke Global Health Institute, and the Center for Policy Impact in Global Health assessed the current landscape of USG investment by completing a desk review of 147 articles and conducting 36 key informant interviews with both USG and private actors (private industry, foundations, and not-for-profit organizations). Industry representatives highlighted the need for better incentives and market-driven mechanisms along with faster regulatory approval processes to attract greater private investments. Non-profit informants called for greater knowledge sharing, a push for translational research funding, and more cross-agency and cross sector collaborations for product development.
The report identified catalysts and barriers to USG agency support/coordination and proposed recommendations for reform, based on nine key conclusions. View the full report here.