Global Health Progress Stresses Importance of Product Development Partnerships

    WASHINGTON, DC, August 21, 2010 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Helen Coster's recent commentary in her new Forbes blog Good Work addresses the issue of how product development partnerships (PDPs) can develop and improve treatments for neglected diseases like malaria, leishmaniasis, and Chagas disease.

Coster notes, "These diseases affect the world's poorest people, and they often get ignored by pharmaceutical companies for a simple economic reason: there is no way that considerable investment in research will be recouped in drug sales."

Coster's entry highlights the work of some of the best-known PDPs, such as the Drugs for Neglected Disease Initiative, Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization, the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis & Malaria. Coster also highlighted the significant funding of PDPs by The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

In closing, Coster invites her readers to discuss the PDP approach to eradicating neglected diseases and what role, if any, the pharmaceutical industry, philanthropists and other global organizations should play in the fight.

Global Health Progress also believes that public-private product development partnerships are invaluable in expanding the capacity of research and development (R&D) on innovative drugs and vaccines for neglected diseases. These partnerships help by harnessing the technical expertise and resources of the private sector with the approach of universities, research institutes and other public organizations.

For example, research-based biopharmaceutical companies routinely partner with numerous organizations and dedicate hundreds of millions of dollars and their expertise to researching neglected diseases and to developing the next generation of medicines and vaccines. These collaborations are critical in creating practical and innovative solutions in fighting diseases of the developing world, and part of GHP's mission is to highlight the successes of these partnerships.

About Global Health Progress:
Global Health Progress provides a platform for companies, governments, public health leaders, universities, foundations, and other stakeholders to share experiences and best practices and to forge new partnerships. Global Health Progress also supports efforts to raise awareness and mobilize resources to address health challenges in the developing world by bringing local leaders together with international health experts, policymakers, donor governments, and the private sector.

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