Report by the World Health Organization on “Priority Medicines for Europe and the World”

November 17, 2004

World Health Organization (WHO):
“Priority Medicines for Europe and the World”

This report, launched at the conference on “Priority Medicines for Europe and the World” in The Hague this week, examines current pharmaceutical gaps in research on neglected diseases of the developing world and orphan diseases of rich countries, and recommends policies and incentives for Europe to become an active player in pharmaceutical innovation and address such research gaps.

This report reviews the role of product PPPs that have been established to address market failures in R&D into neglected diseases: "They have introduced innovative and creative systems and processes for drug development outside the traditional for-profit pharmaceutical model."

The TB Alliance is one of “four major PPPs” with “business plans which suggest that these organizations believe that they can produce medicines at considerably lower costs” compared to traditional estimates. At the present time, "PPPs are the primary vehicle addressing many of these global health issues."

The report acknowledges the important EU initiative to support clinical trials for AIDS, TB and malaria at the EDCTP. It calls for much more substantial investments from the EU.