Public-private partnership: from there to here

Major changes in research and development (R&D) for drugs to treat tropical and neglected diseases have occurred in the past five years. Public-private partnerships for product development (PD PPPs) have emerged since rising drug development costs pushed pharmaceutical companies out of R&D for these diseases of the developing world and are now having an impact on the discovery and development of new medicines to treat them. PD PPPs can be an efficient model for bridging the translational research gap between basic research and clinical development by bringing together expertise from academia, the pharmaceutical industry and the public sector. Sustainability of funding is a serious problem. At present, one or two key philanthropic organisations provide a large proportion of the funding. Drug development typically takes 10 years and only 10 per cent of initial projects make it into the clinic. The partnerships need to widen their funding base and ensure that the funders understand the high level of attrition. Public-private partnerships have proved that they can move compounds quickly through the R&D pipeline. The challenge is to ensure that the products are delivered to the people who need them and to ensure that scientists in endemic countries are involved in the whole process.