Download This PaperEbola, R&D on Neglected Diseases and the Health Impact Fund
15 Pages Posted: 22 Sep 2015 Last revised: 22 Sep 2020
Date Written: March 5, 2015
Abstract
The gravity of the outbreak of Ebola virus in 2014, and the fact that no effective vaccine or treatment exists against the disease, has re-opened the debate on neglected diseases, pharmaceutical R&D and Intellectual Property. Neglected diseases are those conditions having a major impact in the developing world and mainly affecting poor populations. Patients suffering from this type of illnesses are in need of life-saving drugs and vaccines that either do not exist or require further development.
However, there is a lack of incentives for pharmaceutical innovators to invest in R&D on new cures and treatments, thus contributing to a context of market failure. Even though a vast demand exists for new pharmaceutical products to treat neglected diseases, the purchasing power of developing countries and their impoverished populations is too small to subsidise the costs of R&D and to generate future profits.Arguably, the global intellectual property system, as established by the TRIPS Agreement, has failed at generating the right stimulus to invest in finding treatments for those diseases mainly affecting the developing world. Further, it has contributed to a context of restricted access to live-saving treatments in poor countries.
To address this situation, the WHO made a call to find alternative legal mechanisms to promote R&D on neglected diseases. Yale University philosophy professor Thomas Pogge, and University of Calgary economist Aidan Hollis, have proposed the establishment of the Health Impact Fund. This is an alternative innovation mechanism which seeks to attract investment in R&D on neglected diseases, while ensuring the access to the resulting medicines and vaccines by the world's poor.
Keywords: Health Impact Fund, HIF, Ebola, neglected diseases, pharmaceutical R&D, TRIPS Agreement, patent system, public health, access to essential medicines, market failure, 90/10 Gap, push mechanisms pull mechanisms, patent pools, product development partnerhsip, advanced market commitments, patent pools
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