In a keynote luncheon address at the Partnering for Global Health Forum, Dr. Nils Daulaire, Director of Office of Global Health Affairs at the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, reflected on the Obama Administration's commitments to global health and the critical needs that might be addressed by the biotech community.
"The Obama administration has decided that the issues of global health are important not just for humanitarian reasons, but for reasons of international security and for the health and well-being of the American people," Daulaire said. "In my new post at a domestic agency, we see global health as a necessary component of that well-being."
Dr. Daulaire also spoke about shifting away from the idea of 'market failure' in global health. "We are not looking at failure, but rather the natural workings of the market, where you have customers who cannot afford to purchase. Rather than talk about failure, we must talk about market limitation and ways to get around limitations with perhaps something more than the invisible hand.
"None of us assumes innovation and research comes from bureaucrats in Washington," he added. "It comes from people like you. "We have to be more open than the US government has ever been to look at ways that go outside the box. Progress has been far too little and far too slow."
"If we give the world the tools that it needs, we will need all of you to work with us, to press us, to nag us, to make sure we get the practical needs to apply those tools to the people who need it most."