Lives on the Edge: Time to align medical research and development with people’s health needs
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) released a report that outlines shortcomings of the current system for new drug development. The report highlights resulting access barriers and proposes policy solutions.
The 56-page report is entitled, Lives on the Edge: Time to align medical research and development with people’s health needs.
“In this report, MSF illustrates how our staff and patients around the world are impacted by the way biomedical research and development (R&D) is predominantly conducted today. The report also looks at a broad range of policies aimed at changing this dynamic by incentivising the development of medical tools that truly respond to patient and public health needs, and ensuring they are made broadly accessible,” a press statement says.
The substantive discussion of policy options include greater transparency on R&D costs; changing the incentives; setting priorities, coordinating efforts and ensuring sustainable financing; and government action. The report includes an analysis of how much it really costs to develop a drug, looking into recently asserted claims of massive expenditure to come up with a single product.
Source: Intellectual Property Watch
