Governments rather than industry pay for most
drug development and should ensure more money is
spent on fighting diseases such as malaria that
afflict poor countries, a health advocacy group
said.
The Global Forum for Health Research found that
once tax and other subsidies are accounted for,
the public sector finances 84 percent of global
research and development in the health sector, private
industry 12 percent and non-profit donors 4 percent.
"The public sector is by far the largest investor
globally in basic research to discover important
new drugs and vaccines," Donald Light, a professor
at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New
Jersey, said in a report for the Forum.
This gives governments the leverage to push for
more development of drugs for so-called neglected
diseases which kill millions of people each year,
the report said. The Forum's aim is to campaign
for more research devoted to improving the health
of people in developing countries.
International experts estimate only 10 percent
of the world's resources for health research are
spent on solving the health problems of developing
countries, where 90 percent of curable diseases
are found, it said.
"Governments are going to have to get involved
in this area," Stephen Matlin, the Geneva-based
group's executive director, told a news briefing.
"The current levels of funding won't be enough."
Western countries should spend more public money
on treatments for tuberculosis, parasitic diseases
and other ailments, and contribute more to public-private
ventures that share costs and risks between governments,
firms and charitable groups, Matlin said.
Groups like OneWorld Health, the Medicines for
Malaria Venture, and the Global Alliance for TB
Drug Development will need much more funding because
of the high cost of late-stage clinical trials for
their medicines, he said.
"We probably need something that is perhaps 5 to
10 times larger than the current size of investment
(from the public sector)," Matlin said.
In nominal terms, the private sector is the biggest
financier of worldwide health research, accounting
for about 48 percent of the more than $100 billion
spent each year.
But factoring in tax breaks and indirect support
like government-funded laboratories and researcher
training, private industry's actual net R&D costs
were "about one-tenth the amount widely claimed,"
Light said.
