Today's afternoon panel focused on industry and R&D incentives was a hotly debated one.
Investors understand the demand for malaria or HIV vaccines. A company working in the field of anthrax will do well because the investor clearly sees that the U.S. government has a firm commitment to buy a vaccine. But how do you explain to investors about a market commitment for a small, specific neglected disease target?
Conversation was passionate. CEO of Vical, Inc, Vijay Samant remarked that motivation to do neglected disease research is often hindered down the line by difficulties in securing funding for late stage clinical trials.
Leighton Read, General Partner at Alloy Ventures and a member of the Board of BIO Ventures for Global Health, cited the
Advance Market Commitment (AMC) as an example of a pull mechanism in which donors conjure up a market in an act of will and philanthropy. "Through AMCs, I believe that we can drive the same kind of investment as we do in breast cancer," he said.
This led into a discussion of current incentives for investment in global health, such as AMCs and
priority review vouchers (PRV). These incentives are an important first step, but more needs to be done to encourage companies to invest in global health.
Clearly, this is an important topic, and one that bears further study.