Recent news
October 2010
GHTC member examines prizes for global health product development, calls for suite of incentives
October 26, 2010 -- In a new blog post, Kaitlin Christenson, manager of the Global Health Technologies Coalition (GHTC), discusses a recent event in which the Results for Development Institute (R4D) presented some of its initial analysis of prizes designed to drive development of TB diagnostics for global health product development. Christenson writes that at the event, R4D highlighted some of the possible benefits associated with prizes, including that they can attract a larger pool of innovators to a problem, allow funders to pay only for successful research and development, and can attract publicity for a crucial issue. R4D also “flagged some disadvantages too: namely that the elements of desired product profiles must be identified far in advance, funders may end up paying for a product that is ultimately not in demand, and cooperation among various stakeholders may be reduced,” according to Christenson. She adds, “We need to keep in mind, however, that the global health pipeline includes a variety of products for diverse diseases at various stages of development. Clearly, no single mechanism can advance the development of all of them. We at the Global Health Technologies Coalition believe a suite of incentives and financing mechanisms is needed to fill the multiple gaps in the global health product development pipeline.” See the link below for more information.
