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Advocacy
As part of its mission, DNDi advocates for enhanced political leadership, increased resources, and an enabling policy environment to stimulate neglected disease R&D. DNDi actively advocates for sound policies that will enable greater needs-driven R&D, including appropriate incentives and financing mechanisms, innovative regulatory pathways that will expedite access, and open innovation approaches to intellectual property management that ensure the widest possible sharing of research knowledge and data.
Increased Resources Urgently Needed
Funding for scientific and medical innovation for diseases that disproportionably affect the developing world remains inadequate.
The R&D funding gap is particularly severe for the most neglected tropical diseases, which offer virtually no commercial market to product developers. Greater investment, complemented by innovative funding mechanisms and incentives, are needed from both governments and the private sector to ensure that these efforts are sustained and strengthened.
Global neglected-disease R&D funding in 2009 totaled $3.2 billion (including malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS). Of this amount, only $162 million – about 5% – was spent on the neglected tropical diseases with the highest death rates, the kinetoplastid diseases (sleeping sickness, Chagas disease, and leishmaniasis), which are the focus of DNDi's efforts.
More information on the R&D funding landscape, read the G-Finder report 2010, Neglected Disease Research and Development: Is the Global Financial Crisis Changing R&D? [PDF 7.3MB]
Enabling R&D Environment
Public leadership is needed to implement policy changes that will support development of new, essential health tools, to ensure equitable access for affected populations, and to contribute to the development of innovative, needs-based approaches to intellectual property, technology transfer, an enabling regulatory environment, and strengthening of research capacities in developing countries.
DNDi and the George Institute launched in February 2010 a new report on the challenges of registering new drugs for neglected diseases in the African context.
Although a comprehensive, sustainable solution to the problem of neglected disease R&D has not yet emerged, governments, experts, and industry have proposed a number of new ideas, including both "push" mechanisms to finance R&D, and "pull" incentives to spur private sector investment.
In 2006, WHO established an expert working group to examine current financing and coordination of R&D, as well as new proposals to stimulate innovation related to diseases that occur in both rich and poor countries, such as HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis, as well as diseases that overwhelmingly or exclusively occur in the developing countries, such as sleeping sickness.
Discussions are ongoing at the WHO Consultative Expert Working Group on Research and Development Financing and Coordination and DNDi recently submitted comments to the body. Click here to read DNDi's submission.
Examples of Advocacy Initiatives
In May 2011, DNDi submitted testimony to the U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs, emphasizing the urgent need for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to include R&D among the activities supported by the Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD) Program and to ensure the NTDs with the highest death rates – including sleeping sickness, Chagas disease, and visceral leishmaniasis (kala azar) are incorporated into the program.
In July 2009, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the discovery of Chagas disease, DNDi launched a campaign to draw attention to the huge gaps in treatments for Chagas patients. "Research on Neglected Diseases: Time to Treat Chagas Disease!" brought to light the stark realities surrounding the disease.
In February 2009, DNDi and Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières called for scale-up of R&D in the form of increased government and private sector commitments to combat deadly neglected diseases that afflict millions of the world's poorest.
In June 2008, before the G8 Summit in Japan, DNDi released a statement endorsed by the World Health Organization (WHO) urging G8 governments to support both disease control programs and R&D initiatives for NTDs.
In June 2005, DNDi launched a global appeal supported by 19 Nobel Laureates to trigger off strategic mobilisation about the need for government leadership in ensuring a sustainable commitment towards boosting essential health innovation.
