Innovation thrives in small- and medium-sized companies. But typically there is little market opportunity for products addressing neglected tropical diseases, and thus little incentive to engage in neglected disease research and development. Small to medium-sized biotechs need a financial incentive to mitigate this risk.

BIO Ventures for Global Health has designed the pay-for-success Global Health Innovation Quotient Prize (IQ Prize) to address this challenge. The IQ Prize will help small- and medium-sized companies overcome financial barriers by reimbursing and rewarding developers as they complete specific milestones along the neglected disease product development process (as opposed to a prize that only rewards innovation at the end).

This structure can be adapted to address a variety of needs in drug, diagnostic and vaccine development. Our initial application of the IQ Prize is the proposed development of a multiplex point-of-care diagnostic tool for the diagnosis of several common causes of fever in children under age 5, including malaria and pneumonia. These two diseases cause the deaths of millions of children worldwide each year.

IQ Prize Infographic

IQ Prize Case Statement

IQ Prize Donor Proposal

CEWG Proposal

Such a diagnostic tool could save the lives of thousands of children in the developing world. Donor commitments are needed to fund this pay-for-success prize. A PDF of our donor proposal for the IQ Prize can be found here.